Synthesis of graphene–carbon nanotube hybrid foam and its use as a novel three-dimensional electrode for electrochemical sensing

• Main Authors: Dong, Xiaochen, Ma, Yanwen, Zhu, Guoyin, Huang, Yinxi, Wang, Jing, Chan-Park, Mary B., Wang, Lianhui, Huang, Wei, Chen, Peng
• Other Authors: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Chemical engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/96249; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/11371
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Three-dimensional (3D) graphene–carbon nanotube (CNT) hybrids are synthesized by two-step chemical vapor deposition (CVD) under atmospheric pressure. As revealed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the hybrid is a monolithic graphene foam with conformal coverage of a dense CNT mesh. We further demonstrate that the obtained graphene–CNT hybrid foams can be used as novel 3D electrochemical electrodes for sensing applications. Specifically, the 3D graphene–CNT electrodes exhibit a high sensitivity (470.7 mA M−1 cm−2) and low detection limit (20 nM with S/N ≈ 9.2) for dopamine detection. Modified with horseradish peroxidase and Nafion, the 3D hybrid electrodes are also used to detect H2O2 with a high sensitivity (137.9 mA M−1 cm−2), low detection limit (1 μM with S/N ≈ 17.4), and wide linear detection range (10 μM–1 mM).