Improving performance of MoS2-based electrochemical sensors by decorating noble metallic nanoparticles on the surface of MoS2 nanosheet

Abstract

Recently, the use of a molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) nanosheet as a sensing platform has attracted more and more scientists' attention due to its graphene-like structure and excellent physical/chemical properties. Herein, the performances of MoS₂-based electrochemical sensors were improved by decorating noble metallic nanoparticles on the surface of the MoS₂ nanosheet. Taking catechol (CC) as an analyte, it could be found that the MoS₂ nanosheet and its derivatives have excellent electrocatalytic abilities toward CC. More interestingly, the gold nanoparticles-decorated MoS₂ nanosheet (Au–MoS₂), platinum nanoparticles-decorated MoS₂ nanosheet (Pt–MoS₂) and gold–platinum core–shell nanoparticles-decorated MoS₂ nanosheet (Au@Pt–MoS₂) modified electrodes exhibited better detection performances than the pure MoS₂ nanosheet and metallic nanoparticles modified electrodes due to their synergistic effect. As expected, the Au@Pt–MoS₂ nanocomposites modified electrode exhibited the linear range of 2–1000 μM and the detection limit of 0.44 μM for CC detection, which was better than all MoS₂-based nanomaterials. All the MoS₂-based electrochemical sensing platforms were employed to determine CC both in buffer and in real samples with satisfactory results, suggesting MoS₂-based nanomaterials maybe the potential candidates for constructing electrochemical sensors for chemical and biological molecules detection.