Fabrication of novel nitrogen-doped graphene-hollow AuPd nanoparticle hybrid films for the highly efficient electrocatalytic reduction of H2O2

Hollow AuPd (hAuPd) alloy nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared through simultaneous reduction of HAuCl4 and Na2PdCl4 using Co NPs as sacrificial template (i.e., reductant). Then, the hAuPd NPs were assembled on nitrogen-doped graphene (NG) to prepare an NG-hAuPd hybrid film. The obtained NG-hAuPd composite showed higher electrocatalytic activity toward the reduction of H2O2, compared with graphene-hAuPd hybrid, NG-solid AuPd hybrid, and hAuPd NPs. The enhanced performance was related to the hollow structure of hAuPd NPs and the synergistic effect between NG and hAuPd NPs. Under optimum conditions, the NG-hAuPd hybrid film showed a linear response to H2O2 in the range of 0.1-20 μM, with a sensitivity of 5095.5 μA mM(-1) cm(-2)and a comparable detection limit of 0.02 μM (S/N = 3). These results demonstrated that the NG-hAuPd composite was a promising electrocatalytic material for constructing sensors, etc.