Nickel-Palladium Nanoparticles for Nonenzymatic Methanol Detection

Abstract

Silicon microchannel plates (MCP) modified by nickel-palladium nanoparticles (Ni-Pd/Si-MCP) have highly ordered microchannels with uniform diameters and lengths isolated and parallel to one another and are excellent sensors for the determination of methanol in alkaline solutions. The 3D ordered Si MCP is fabricated by electrochemical etching used as the backbone, and the Ni-Pd nanoparticles are sensitive materials for detecting methanol that was obtained by an electroless plating method. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and electrochemical methods were employed to characterize the Ni-Pd/Si-MCP structure. An electrochemical workstation was used to monitor the sensing characteristics of the Ni-Pd/Si-MCP electrode. As a result of the synergetic effects rendered by the MCP and Ni-Pd nanoparticles, these sensors present a high sensitivity of 0.168 mA mM⁻¹, and the detection limits was 12 μM. In particular, since the fabrication process is compatible with conventional silicon technology, the structure has immense potential as an efficient, nonenzymatic, and integrated methanol sensors.

Keywords:

• Nanocomposites
• Porous materials
• Semiconductors
• Sensors

Acknowledgments

This work was jointly supported by Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province (No. F201008 and QC2011C092), Excellent Young Scholars of Higher University of Heilongjiang Province No. 1252G061, and City University of Hong Kong Research Grant 9360110.