Octadecylamine-functionalized graphene vesicles based voltammetric sensing of hydroquinone.

Graphical abstract The study reports one strategy for fabrication of octadecylamine-functionalized graphene vesicles (OA-GV) using a Pickering the soft template. The as-prepared OA-GV offers a large specific surface, high catalytic ability and electrochemical activity. The glassy carbon electrode modified with OA-GV exhibits an ultrahigh sensitivity for detection of hydroquinone, because a significantly electrochemical synergy was achieved. Highlights • The study reports synthesis of octadecylamine-functionalized graphene vesicles. • The vesicles offers a large surface area, high conductivity and high catalytic activity. • The introduction of octadecylamine achieves to highly electrochemical activity. • The sensor based on vesicles an exhibits an ultra high sensitivity to hydroquinone. • The study offers approach for building on graphene aerogel for further application. Abstract The study reports one strategy for synthesis of octadecylamine-functionalized graphene vesicles (OA-GV). Firstly, citric acid was mixed with octadecylamine and subsequently heated at 180 °C for 4 h to form a graphene oxide that consists of small graphene sheets with a good amphiphilic structure. The graphene oxide was dispersed in water and strongly mixed with toluene to produce a toluene-in-water Pickering emulsion. The graphene oxide sheets in the emulsion were orderly self-assembled into graphene oxide micro-gel in the toluene/water interface. Followed by freeze-drying and thermal reduction in H 2 at 400 °C for 5 h. The as-synthesized OA-GV shows a vesicle-like architecture constructed by ultrathin graphene sheets. The use of small graphene oxide sheets and their self-assembly effectively avoid the serious agglomeration of graphene sheets and leads to a large specific surface area (1853.2 m2 g−1). The introduction of octadecylamine creates highly electrochemical activity and helps to achieve a significant synergy in electrochemistry between OA-GV and hydroquinone. The sensor based on OA-GV exhibits an ultrahigh sensitivity towards hydroquinone. The differential pulse voltammetric peak current linearly increases with the increase of hydroquinone in the range of 0.01–1.0 nM with the detection limit of 0.0049 nM (S/N = 3). The method has been successfully applied to determination of hydroquinone in water samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]