Ultrasensitive sensing of environmental nitroaromatic contaminants on nanocomposite of Prussian blue analogues cubes grown on glucose-derived porous carbon

In consideration of urgent need to detect trace nitroaromatic contaminants (NACs) in the environment, an ultra-sensitive environmental sensing for NACs detection based on Prussian blue analogues cubes in situ grown on glucose-derived porous carbon materials (PBAcs/PC-x) was synthesized for the first time via a simple one-pot pyrolysis process followed by acid pickling. The prepared PBAcs/PC-800 sensor possesses abundant cyano groups (-CN) with lone-pair electrons, p-conjugated effect of porous carbon and NACs, high conductive carbon lattices and numerous active redox sites on PBAs, which boost the pre-adsorption of NACs, the electron transfer rate and the electrocatalysis activity toward reduction of NACs. Those synergetic effects endow the prepared PBAcs/PC-800/GC electrode with not only wide detection range from 1 to 1000 ppb for dinitrobenzene (DNB) detection but also an clear response to DNB at a level of 1-10 ppb with an extremely high sensitivity of 443.1 mu A ppm(-1) (6271.8 mu A ppm(-1) cm(-2)), a good linearity of 0.9997 and a low detection limit of 0.12 ppb (S/N = 3). Additionally, the proposed sensor possesses high reproducibility, good long-term stability, strong anti-interference ability, and also shows great potential for sensitive detection of NACs at ppb level in environmental water. The present work offers a great model for constructing efficient and promising electrochemical NACs sensor.