Dendritic silver nanostructures obtained via one-step electrosynthesis: effect of nonanesulfonic acid and polyvinylpyrrolidone as additives on the analytical performance for hydrogen peroxide sensing

The electrochemical deposition of silver nanodendrites (AgNDs) on pure graphite sheet (PGS) electrodes, both in the absence of surfactant/templates and in the presence of 1-nonanesulfonic acid (NS) or polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) additives, is reported. The synthesis carried out without additives and with NS produced a bigger amount of large size AgNDs (dimension of 1–5 μm), with scarce influence played by NS, while the deposition with PVP favoured the formation of smaller spherical particles (with average diameter below 150 nm). The performances of the electrodes towards the electroreduction of H 2 O 2 were investigated by chronoamperometry at −0.4 V and at more cathodic applied potentials (−0.6 and −0.8 V). The electrodes fabricated without additives and in the presence of NS displayed similar performances, while those fabricated with PVP exhibited significantly lower sensitivity. This suggests that AgNDs present enhanced electrocatalytic activity in respect to the spherical aggregates, since the Ag amount deposited on PGS was practically the same. The best amperometric responses among those recorded at −0.4 V in PBS (pH 6.7) exhibited a linear range extending from 0.1 to 3.5 mM, a detection limit of about 20 μM and a sensitivity close to 200 mA M −1 cm −2 . The proposed electrodes display sensitivities which are markedly better than those reported in the literature for similar Ag-based sensors.