Nanowire Ordered Arrays for Electrochemical Sensing of H₂O₂

Abstract

In this work, we present the performance of nanostructured array of Cu for electrochemical sensors of hydrogen peroxide. Nanostructured sensors are obtained by template synthesis in commercial polycarbonate membranes. Arrays of Cu nanowires were fabricated through a displacement deposition reaction that permits to obtain nanostructures directly and without the use of an external power supply. To test the performance of nanostructured sensors, electrochemical experiments were carried out in an aqueous solution with different amounts of hydrogen peroxide. In order to obtain sensors with stable performance, we found that it is essential to increase wettability of the nanostructures through addition of pure ethanol to the test solution. The main advantages of these electrodes are related to the high specific area (about 70 times higher than the geometrical one), which allows a low detection limit (less than 20 µM).