Molybdenum disulfide nanoflower-chitosan-Au nanoparticles composites based electrochemical sensing platform for bisphenol A determination

•This work constructs a novel electrochemical biosensor for bisphenol A detection.•Flower-like MoS2 are prepared by a simple hydrothermal procedure.•AuNPs are assembled on MoS2 nanoflowers modified electrode for signal amplification.•The developed sensor exhibits low detection limit and wide linear range. Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide are attracting increasing attention in electrochemical sensing due to their unique electronic properties. In this work, flower-like molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) was prepared by a simple hydrothermal method. The scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy images showed the MoS2 nanoflower had sizes with diameter of about 200nm and was constructed with many irregular sheets as a petal-like structure with thickness of several nanometers. A novel electrochemical sensor was constructed for the determination of bisphenol A (BPA) based on MoS2 and chitosan-gold nanoparticles composites modified electrode. The sensor showed an efficient electrocatalytic role for the oxidation of BPA, and the oxidation overpotentials of BPA decreased significantly and the peak current increased greatly compared with bare GCE and other modified electrode. A good linear relationship between the oxidation peak current and BPA concentration was obtained in the range from 0.05 to 100μM with a detection limit of 5.0×10−9M (S/N=3). The developed sensor exhibited high sensitivity and long-term stability, and it was successfully applied for the determination of BPA in different samples. This work indicated MoS2 nanoflowers were promising in electrochemical sensing and catalytic applications.