Development of highly sensitive H2O2 redox sensor from electrodeposited tellurium nanoparticles using ionic liquid.

A new, non-enzymatic, low-cost sensor based on tellurium nanoparticles (TeNPs) for the analytical determination of H2O2 has been proposed. An economically viable electrochemical technique was employed for the synthesis of TeNPs based non-enzymatic H2O2 sensor. Thin films of TeNPs were successfully electrodeposited on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate using [BMIM][Ac] ionic liquid at 90 °C. The effect of deposition potential on the morphology, phase formation, and electrochemical characterisation of nanostructured Te films has been studied. Field emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were employed to characterize the nanostructured Te films on FTO surface. The electro-catalytic performance of the proposed TeNPs/FTO sensor has been studied by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and chronoamperometry (CA) in phosphate buffer (Argon saturated) in the absence and presence of H2O2. TeNPs/FTO fabricated at applied potential of -1.40 V showed an excellent electro-catalytic activity towards H2O2 reduction. The proposed TeNPs/FTO sensor shows an excellent sensitivity of 757 µA mM-1 cm-2. The sensor possess good selectivity and stability with an excellent amperometric response time of about 5 s. The present study also demonstrates that TeNPs/FTO is a promising sensing material suitable for determination of H2O2 in practical samples.