Visible light photoelectrochemical sensor for ultrasensitive determination of dopamine based on synergistic effect of graphene quantum dots and TiO2 nanoparticles.

We have demonstrated a facile approach for fabricating graphene quantum dots-TiO2 (GQDs-TiO2) nanocomposites by a simple physical adsorption method. Compared with pure GQDs and TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs), the as-prepared GQDs-TiO2 nanocomposites showed enhanced photoelectrochemical (PEC) signal under visible-light irradiation. The photocurrent of GQDs-TiO2/GCE was nearly 30-fold and 12-fold enhancement than that of GQDs/GCE and TiO2/GCE, respectively, which was attributed to the synergistic amplification between TiO2 NPs and GQDs. More interestingly, the photocurrent of GQDs-TiO2 nanocomposites was selectively sensitized by dopamine (DA), and enhanced with the increasing of DA concentration. Further, a new PEC methodology for ultrasensitive determination of DA was developed, which showed linearly enhanced photocurrent by increasing the DA concentration from 0.02 to 105 μM with a detection limit of 6.7 nM (S/N=3) under optimized conditions. This strategy opens up a new avenue for the application of GQDs-based nanocomposites in the field of PEC sensing and monitoring.