Co3V2O8 nanoparticle-assembled porous sphere as a new electrocatalyst for sensitive nonenzymatic sensing of H2O2

The development of new highly active electrocatalysts is one of the key factors to improve the performance of enzyme-free electrochemical sensors. In this paper, Co3V2O8 was proposed as a new electrocatalyst for nonenzymatic oxidation of H2O2. A facile self-templating strategy was adopted for the synthesis of Co3V2O8 nanomaterial which was further characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), powder X-ray diffractometry (XRD), fourier translation infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and electrochemical techniques. The results showed that porous Co3V2O8 sphere was constructed from interconnected nanoparticle with a three-dimensional porous structure. Such unique structure made the sensor based on Co3V2O8 exhibit good electrocatalytic activity toward H2O2 oxidation, and could detect H2O2 with a low detection limit of 0.34 µM, a wide linear range of 2.0 µM to 6.1 mM and a high sensitivity of 541.4 µA mM−1 cm−2. This work demonstrated an effective new sensing platform for nonenzymatic detection of H2O2. [Display omitted] •Porous Co3V2O8 sphere was constructed from interconnected nanoparticle with a three-dimensional porous structure.•Co3V2O8 nanomaterial was explored as electrocatalyst for the oxidation of H2O2.•The sensor based on Co3V2O8 exhibits excellent performance for H2O2 detection.