Directly one-step electrochemical synthesis of graphitic carbon nitride/graphene hybrid and its application in ultrasensitive electrochemiluminescence sensing of pentachlorophenol

Abstract In this paper, g-C 3 N 4 /GR hybrid has been prepared by a novel one-step electrochemical reduction technology for the first time. GR not only serves as immobilization platform for g-C 3 N 4 , but also significantly enhances the electrochemiluminescence (ECL) signal of g-C 3 N 4 (∼4.7 times); additionally, the ECL signal can be further enhanced in the presence of the self-produced coreactant from oxygen reduction. Moreover, due to the quenching effect of pentachlorophenol (PCP) on the ECL signal of g-C 3 N 4 /GR, an advanced ECL sensor based on g-C 3 N 4 /GR has been fabricated for the ultrasensitive and rapid detection of PCP with unprecedented sensitivity reaching 1.0 × 10 −11  mol L −1 in a wide linear range from 1.0 × 10 −11 to 1.0 × 10 −7  mol L −1 , and the possible ECL detection mechanism has been proposed in detail. The practicability of the sensing platform in real water sample shows ideal recovery rates. Moreover, we also find that the one-step electrodeposition technology might be a good and viable way to make the bulk g-C 3 N 4 thinner. Our experiments display the powerful utility of GR to g-C 3 N 4 ECL studies and will emerge eximious applications in analytical communities and environmental monitoring.