Synthesis of porphyrinic metal-organic framework/rGO nanocomposite for electrochemical recognition of copper ions in water

Zirconium-porphyrin metal-organic framework (PCN-224) hybridized reduced graphene oxide (PCN-224/rGO) was coupled with gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) to form a novel nanocomposite (PCN-224/rGO@Au). The PCN-224/rGO@Au has been served as a sensing interface for electrochemical determination of Cu 2+ via differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) approach. The PCN-224 contains the active site for capturing Cu 2+ and exhibits as a biomimetic catalyst to reveal a higher catalytic performance to target Cu 2+ . Simultaneously, the rGO and Au NPs provide good electrical conductivity and efficient catalytic activity as an electrochemical indicator. Under the optimized determining conditions, the peak current of Cu 2+ was linearly proportional to the concentration over the range of 5–150 µM with the LOD of 1.5 µM (S/N = 3). This approach exhibits good sensitivity, selectivity as well as great stability, which can accurately determine the content of Cu 2+ in the real water samples.