Graphdiyne: A Chelating Carbon for High Selectivity Direct Electrochemical Sensing of Trace Copper Ions

Graphical Graphdiyne is firstly explored for high selectivity direct electrochemical sensing of Cu 2+ , achieving a wide detection range of 0.25–380 μM and a trace level as low as 8 nM. This high performance is attributed to the unique C≡C structure of GDY, which possesses both chelating and reducing abilities to anchor and reduce Cu 2+ to Cu + . Graphdiyne (GDY), an emerging type of carbon allotropes with unique sp−sp 2 carbon atoms, is firstly explored for high selectivity direct electrochemical sensing of ultra-trace level copper ions (Cu 2+ ). It achieves a wide detection range of 0.25–380 μM and a trace level as low as 8 nM, among the best performance of reported carbon-based sensors. It is found that GDY with unique C≡C possesses both chelating and reducing abilities to efficiently anchor and reduce Cu 2+ to Cu + , eventually leading to ultrasensitive detection.