Electrochemical Sensing of Chemical Warfare Agent Based on Hybrid Material Silver-aminosilane Graphene Oxide

The threat from chemical warfare agents (CWAs) imparts an alarming call for the global community not limited to human being but also extends as unprecedented environmental threat, hence, timely detection and degradation in the event of CWAs attack is very crucial. Herein, we describe a hybrid material of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) modified graphene oxide (GO) on glassy carbon (GC) electrode along with electrodeposited silver nanodendrimers (AgNDs) for the electrochemical detection and degradation of CWA sulphur mustard (HD). The AgNDs/APTES-GO hybrid material was characterized by SEM, EDX, BET, TGA, Raman, UV-Vis, XPS and XRD techniques. The AgNDs/APTES-GO modified GC electrode was also characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Electrochemical studies indicated presence of electrocatalysis owing to the synergistic effect of AgNDs and GO for sensing CWA HD via reductive dehalogenation. The AgNDs/APTES-GO modified GC electrode exhibited linearity for CWA HD from 5.3 mu M to 42.4 mu M. Constant potential electrolysis was performed with modified electrode and degradation products were analysed using GC-MS, highlighting the great potential of graphene based hybrid material. This new strategy provides an opportunity for the development of "detect and destroy" system for the CWAs and other environmental toxic pollutant, which could help in mitigation of on- site events for first responders.