Gold nanoparticles plated porous silicon nanopowder for nonenzymatic voltammetric detection of hydrogen peroxide

A voltammetric approach was developed for the selective and sensitive determination of hydrogen peroxide using Au plated porous silicon (PSi) nanopowder modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE). The AuNPs-PSi hybrid structure was synthesized via stain etching procedure followed by an immersion plating method to deposit AuNPs onto PSi via a simple galvanic displacement reaction with no external reducing agent to convert Au3+ to Au0. The as-fabricated AuNPs-PSi catalyst was successfully characterized by XRD, Raman, FTIR, XPS, SEM, TEM and EDS techniques. Well crystalline nature of the as-fabricated hybrid structure with AuNPs size ranging from 5 to 40 nm was observed. The specific surface area and total pore volume for both PSi and AuNPs plated PSi were evaluated using N2 adsorption isotherm technique. Cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy techniques were applied to investigate the catalytic efficiency of AuNPs-PSi modified electrode compared to pure PSi/GCE and unmodified GCE. The sensing performance of the active material modified GCE was thoroughly examined with linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and square wave voltammetry (SWV) techniques. The AuNPs-PSi/GCE exhibited a remarkable linear dynamic range between 2.0 and 13.81 mM (for LSV) and 0.5–6.91 mM for (SWV) with high sensitivity and low detection limit of 10.65 μAmM−1cm−2 and 14.84 μM for LSV, whereas 10.41 μAmM−1cm−2 and 15.16 μM using SWV techniques, respectively. The fabricated sensor electrode showed excellent anti-interfering ability in the presence of several common biomolecules as well as demonstrated good operational stability and reproducibility with low relative standard deviation. Moreover, the modified electrode showed acceptable recovery of H2O2 in a real sample analysis. Thus, the developed AuNPs-PSi hybrid nanomaterial represents an excellent electrocatalyst for the efficient detection and quantification of H2O2 by the electrochemical approach. [Display omitted] •AuNPs decorated porous silicon (PSi) nanopowder via stain etching and immersion plating.•AuNPs/PSi/Nafion modified GCE as a novel Nonenzymatic H2O2 electrochemical sensor.•Remarkable sensitivity 10.65 μAmM−1cm−2 and low LOD 14.84 μM using LSV.•Excellent reproducibility, repeatability, operational stability and anti-interfering ability.