Hierarchical flower-like zinc oxide nanosheets in-situ growth on three-dimensional ferrocene-functionalized graphene framework for sensitive determination of epinephrine and its oxidation derivative

A flower-like ZnO/3D graphene@Fc was successfully prepared and exhibited excellent sensing performance for epinephrine and its oxidation derivative detection, achieving the effect of “two birds with one stone”. [Display omitted] •Novel flower-like ZnO in-situ growth on 3D graphene@Fc hybrid was prepared.•The hybrid has both unique 3D porous structure and hierarchical connectivity.•It can detect epinephrine and its oxidation derivatives simultaneously.•Unique structural virtues and synergistic effect endow superb sensing property.•Acceptable recovery in human serum indicated its real application value. Epinephrine (EP) is a significant neurotransmitter, energizes and maintains the various body systems and plays a pivotal role in the response to stressful conditions of blood pressure and blood sugar level. Herein, a novel epinephrine sensor based on the hierarchical flower-like zinc oxide nanosheets (flower-like ZnO) embedded into three-dimensional ferrocene-functionalized graphene framework (3D graphene@Fc) was successfully prepared, using a facile route of one-pot in situ hydrothermal growth method. Benefiting from the unique structural advantages, meanwhile integrated with synergistic effect of components, the flower-like ZnO/3D graphene@Fc exhibits excellent sensing performance for epinephrine with a wide linear range of 0.02 to 216 μM, a low detection limit of 0.0093 μM, high anti-interference and good cyclic stability. Interestingly, it is unexpectedly found that the flower-like ZnO/3D graphene@Fc has sensing ability for EP’s oxidized derivative (QA) during the oxidation process of EP, along with a linear range of 0.192 to 527 μM and a detection limit of 0.1 μM for QA. More importantly, acceptable recovery obtained from the real sample test, confirming the feasibility of this biosensor for practical application.