Amperometric Formaldehyde Sensor Based on a Pd Nanocrystal Modified C/Co2P Electrode

Ultrafine pd nanocrystals were grown on the cobalt phosphide (co2p) decorated vulcan xc-72 carbon (c/co2p),which is realized by first implementing the corresponding metal precursor and then the further chemical reduction process. the as-synthesized c/co2p/pd composite was further constructed to form a gas permeable electrode. this electrode can be applied for formaldehyde (hcho) detection. the results demonstrate that the co2p nanocrystal can significantly improve the sensing performance of the c/co2p/pd electrode for catalytic oxidation of hcho,which is considered to be attributed to the effective electron transfer from co2p to pd in the c/co2p/pd composites. furthermore,the assembled c/co2p/pd sensor exhibits high sensitivity of 617 na/ppm and good selectivity toward various interfering gases such as no2,no,so2,co2,and co. it also shows the excellent linear response that the correlation coefficient is 0.994 in the concentration range of 1-10 ppm. therefore,the proposed cost-effective c/co2p/pd nanocomposite,which owns advantages such as high activity and good stability,has the potential to be applied as an effective electrocatalyst for amperometric hcho detection. © 2017 huan wang et al.