Ruiyi Li, Zaijun Li, Guangli Wang
Dec 1, 2018
Citations
0
Influential Citations
18
Citations
Journal
Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical
Abstract
Abstract The study reports one strategy for synthesis of octadecylamine-functionalized graphene vesicles (OA-GV). Firstly, citric acid was mixed with octadecylamine and subsequently heated at 180 °C for 4 h to form a graphene oxide that consists of small graphene sheets with a good amphiphilic structure. The graphene oxide was dispersed in water and strongly mixed with toluene to produce a toluene-in-water Pickering emulsion. The graphene oxide sheets in the emulsion were orderly self-assembled into graphene oxide micro-gel in the toluene/water interface. Followed by freeze-drying and thermal reduction in H2 at 400 °C for 5 h. The as-synthesized OA-GV shows a vesicle-like architecture constructed by ultrathin graphene sheets. The use of small graphene oxide sheets and their self-assembly effectively avoid the serious agglomeration of graphene sheets and leads to a large specific surface area (1853.2 m2 g−1). The introduction of octadecylamine creates highly electrochemical activity and helps to achieve a significant synergy in electrochemistry between OA-GV and hydroquinone. The sensor based on OA-GV exhibits an ultrahigh sensitivity towards hydroquinone. The differential pulse voltammetric peak current linearly increases with the increase of hydroquinone in the range of 0.01–1.0 nM with the detection limit of 0.0049 nM (S/N = 3). The method has been successfully applied to determination of hydroquinone in water samples.