Investigators publish new data in the report "Aniline as a dispersing and stabilizing agent for reduced graphene oxide and its subsequent decoration with Ag nanoparticles for enzymeless hydrogen peroxide detection." According to the authors of a study from Changchun, People's Republic of China, "An aqueous dispersion of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) has been successfully prepared via chemical reduction of graphene oxide (GO) by hydrazine hydrate in the presence of aniline for the first time. The noncovalent functionalization of rGO by aniline leads to a rGO dispersion that can be very stable for several months without the observation of any floating or precipitated particles." 

"Several analytical techniques including Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) have been used to characterize the resulting rGO. Taking advantages of the fact reducing ability of aniline toward AgNO(3), we further demonstrated the subsequent decoration of rGO with Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs) by in situ chemical reduction of silver salts. It was found that such AgNP/rGO nanocomposites exhibit good catalytic activity toward the reduction of hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)), leading to an enzymeless sensor with a fast amperometric response time of less than 2s," wrote S. Liu and colleagues, State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry.

The researchers concluded: "The linear detection range is estimated to be from 100 M to 80 mM (r=0.9991), and the detection limit is estimated to be 7.1 M at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3." 

Liu and colleagues published their study in the Journal of Colloid and Interface Science (Aniline as a dispersing and stabilizing agent for reduced graphene oxide and its subsequent decoration with Ag nanoparticles for enzymeless hydrogen peroxide detection. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 2011;363(2):615-9). 

For more information, contact S. Liu, State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun.

( Source: Verticalnews http://www.verticalnews.com/article.php?articleID=6499196)