Hydrothermal synthesis of C03O4 nanoparticles/multi-walled carbon nanotube nanocomposite and its application for amperometric sensing of hydrazine

摘要

Hydrazine is a kind of transparent oily liquid with a wide application, such as chemical blowing agent, cleaning agent and herbicides in agriculture. Furthermore, it can be used as fuel for the rockets for its large burning heat. However, hydrazine is a highly toxic substance which is harmful for human liver, kidney and nervous system. Therefore, it is important to find a fast and sensitive method to detect and determine the hydrazine. Previous published work for detecting hydrazine methods include titrimetry, coulometer, spectrophotometry and so on. However, the processes involved in many of these methods are extremely complex. Fortunately, with the development of the electrochemical technique, its characters such as cheapness, high sensitivity and rapid response have drawn much attention especially in sensors. Noble metals, such as platinum (Pt), gold (Au), palladium (Pd) and silver (Ag) have been widely used in electrochemical hydrazine sensors, the results show they have high electrochemical activity towards the detection of hydrazine. However, owing to their high cost and easy to be poisoned, metal oxide is always used to substitute noble metals as catalyst to oxidize hydrazine. Among them, as a class of transition metal, C03O4 presents itself as one of the most promising materials for the hydrazine sensor due to its low cost, non-toxicity and high electrochemical activities. However, C03O4 is a semiconductor which has high resistance. In order to improve the conductivity of the catalyst, C03O4 are generally supported on some materials, usually carbon materials.