Uniform and Vertically Oriented ZnO Nanosheets Based on Thin Layered MoS2: Synthesis and High-Sensing Ability

Recently, a lot of nanomaterial-based composites have attracted wide interests in the field of electrochemical biosensing. Especially, the nanostructured ZnO (such as nanobelts, nanowires, and nanosheets) has emerged as a unique family of nanomaterials. In this Research Article, the uniform and vertically oriented ZnO nanosheets were electrodeposited on the preobtained MoS2 scaffold via cyclic voltammetry method further as a sensitively sensing platform to detect some molecules containing aromatic or conjugated rings. The morphology and electrochemical behaviors of ZnO-MoS2 nanosheets were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), and some electrochemical methods. Taking the nitro-substituted aromatic explosive 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) as an example, the parallel experiments were made to prove that the uniform ZnO-MoS2 nanosheets composite was a worthy electrochemical monitoring platform toward the TNT detection. Compared with individual ZnO and individual MoS2, the ZnO-MoS2 showed the most obvious electrochemical signal, lowest limit of detection, and superior linear relation in the low concentration range. Moreover, the detections of other molecules containing aromatic or conjugated rings, such as 2'-deoxyaguanosine-5'-triphosphate trisodium (dGTP) and riboflavin (V-b), were also investigated.