Reduced graphene oxide–Nickel sulfide (NiS) composited on mechanical pencil lead as a versatile and cost-effective sensor for electrochemical measurements of bisphenol A and mercury (II)

[Display omitted] •NiS is a promising material for electrochemical sensing owing to its good conductivity and stability.•NiS was integrated with MPL and rGO to build a versatile and cheap sensor.•For fabrication, NiS was initially deposited on the MPL surface by a hydrothermal method.•rGO was then electrodeposited on the NiS surface to form a complete MPL-NiS/rGO sensor.•The sensor showed superior sensitivity and reproducibility in measurements of BPA and Hg (II). NiS is a highly promising transition metal sulfide versatile for a sensor material owing to its superior conductivity and stability, and herein we report its first incorporation into an electrochemical sensor. Because exposure to electrolyte under electrochemical impact can easily deform NiS, thereby decreasing its electro-activity and measurement reproducibility, a strategy for optimally integrating NiS into sensors is critically necessary. For this purpose, NiS was initially firmly affixed to a mechanical pencil lead (MPL) by means of hydrothermal deposition (with the result designated as MPL-NiS). MPL, a commercially available carbon-based material with consistent quality, was adopted to make the sensor cost-effective and easily prepared. Then, to prevent direct exposure of NiS to samples during electrochemical measurement and to make the sensor surface more reactive for wide variety of analytes, reduced graphene oxide (rGO) was electrodeposited on the NiS surface to construct a final structure of MPL-NiS/rGO. In summary, NiS, a p-type semiconductor with positive charge, was effectively composited and sandwiched with negatively charged rGO and MPL by means of mutual electrostatic interaction. When the developed MPL-NiS/rGO sensor was used to separately measure bisphenol A (BPA) and mercury- Hg2+, the sensitivity and sensor-to-sensor reproducibility were comparable with or superior to those of previously reported sensors.