Ultra-low charge transfer resistance carbons by onepot hydrothermal method for glucose sensing

Hydrothermal carbon （HTC） is typically well- dispersed, but it remains a great challenge for HTC to become conductive. Co-doping with heteroatoms has been confirmed to be an effective strategy to significantly promote the electrical conductivity of carbon. Moreover, there is no simple and green method to construct sensitive HTC based electro- chemical biosensors until now. In this paper, N and S dual-doped carbon （NS-C） with ultra-low charge transfer resistance is easily synthesized from L-cysteine and glucose in a hydrothermal reaction system. The morphology, structural prop- erties and electrochemical properties of the as-prepared NS-C are analyzed. In comparison with the undoped hydrothermal （UC） modified glassy carbon electrode （GCE）, the charge transfer resistance of UC （476 Ω） is ten times the value of NS- C （46 Ω）. The developed biosensor shows a better performance to detect glucose in a wide concentration range （50-2500 μmol L^-1） with the detection limit of 1.77 μmol L^-1 （S/N-3） and a high sensitivity （0.0554 μA cm^-2μmol^-1 L）. The apparent Michaelis-Menten constant value of GCE/NS-C/GOx/nafion modified electrode is 0.769 mmol L^-1, indicating a high affinity of glucose oxidase to glucose. These results demonstrate that the hydrothermal method is an effective way for prepar- ing high electrical conductivity carbon with excellent performances in biosensor application.

Feather-like NiCo2O4 self-assemble from porous nanowires as binder-free electrodes for low charge transfer resistance

The unique feather-like arrays composing of ultrathin secondary nanowires are fabricated on nickel foam(NF)through a facile hydrothermal strategy.Thus,the enhancement of electrochemical properties especially the low charge transfer resistance strongly depends on more active sites and porosity of the morphology.Benefiting from the unique structure,the optimized NiCo2O4 electrode delivers a significantly lower charge transfer resistance of 0.32Ω and a high specific capacitance of450 Fg^-1 at 0.5 A.g^-1,as well as a superior cycling stability of 139.6%capacitance retention.The improvement of the electrochemical energy storage property proves the potential of the fabrication of various binary metal oxide electrodes for applications in the electrochemical energy field.

Eco-friendly corrosion inhibitor from Pennisetum purpureum biomass and synergistic intensifiers for mild steel

Extracts of elephant grass （Penniseturn purpureum） blended with some intensifier halides like ammonium chloride （AMC） and potassium iodide （PTI） were investigated as corrosion inhibitor for mild steel. The corrosion process was monitored in 3.5% HCI by mass loss and electrochemical techniques at 30, 40, 50, 60 and 90 ℃. Addition of AMC and PTI increased the inhibition efficiency with the highest inhibition efficiency obtained with PTI blend- ed extract. The blends behaved as mixed type inhibitors and were spontaneously adsorbed on mild steel surface in exothermic nature. Synergistic parameters of the intensifier ions revealed cooperative effect. Kinetic data treatment indicated increase in energy barrier by intensifier ions. The results demonstrate that elephant grass extract blended with halide ions can act as alternative ecofriendly inhibitor for mild steel at elevated temperatures.

Investigation of Co_3O_4 nanorods supported Pd anode catalyst for methanol oxidation in alkaline solution

A CO3O4 nanorod supported Pd electro-catalyst for the methanol electro-oxidation （MEO） has been fabricated by the combination of hydrother- mal synthesis and microwave-assisted polyol reduction processes. The crystallographic property and microstructure have been characterized using XRD, SEM and TEM. The results demonstrate that Pd nanoparticles （PdNPs） with a narrow particle size distribution （3-5 nm） are uni- formly deposited onto the surface of Co304 nanorods. Electrochemical measurements show that this catalyst having a larger electrochemically active surface area and a more negative onset-potential exhibits enhanced catalytic activity of 504 mA/mg Pd for MEO comparing with the Pd/C catalyst （448 mA/mg Pd）. The dependency of log/against logv reveals that MEO on Pd-CO304 electrode is under a diffusion control. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy （EIS） measurement agrees well with the CV results. The minimum charge transfer resistance of MEO on Pd-CO304 is observed at -0.05 V, which coincides with the potential of MEO peak.