3D porous graphene-porous PdCu alloy nanoparticles-molecularly imprinted poly(para-aminobenzoic acid) composite for the electrocatalytic assay of melamine.

In this work, a three-dimensional hybrid film with in- and out-of-plane pores was fabricated by using porous graphene as framework structure and porous PdCu alloy nanoparticles as building blocks. The porous PdCu alloy nanoparticles were prepared by chemical dealloying with acetic acid. The hierarchical pores had abundant active catalytic sites, and the material exhibited remarkable catalytic activity toward the oxidation of hydrazine. Based on this hybrid film, an electrochemical sensor of melamine was developed by further introducing melamine imprinted electro-polymer of para-aminobenzoic acid. Melamine was detected by differential pulse voltammetry using hydrazine as electrochemical probe. The detection signal was amplified due to the catalytic oxidation of hydrazine at this hybrid film. The linear determination range was 0.01-1 μM and the detection limit was 2 nM (S/N = 3). The sensor displayed high recognition capacity toward melamine and also showed good reproducibility and stability. It is promising in the determination of melamine in real samples.