Scalable Electrochemical Synthesis of Novel Biogenic Silver Nanoparticles and Its Application to High-Sensitive Detection of 4-Nitrophenol in Aqueous System

Abstract

This study reports a scalable green electrochemical synthesis of novel biogenic silver nanoparticles colloid (biogenic AgNPs) in large scale up to 5 liters using the bulk silver bar and the green tea leaves (Camellia sinensis) extract (GTE) as reducing agent during the electrochemical process. Under a direct-current voltage source, the biomolecules in GTE can release electrons to promote the reducing process of Ag+ to Ag0. More interestingly, the formation of the intermediate complex helps to cap on the nanoparticles, which leads to stabilizing AgNPs. The as-synthesized biogenic AgNPs with the size of 34 nm exhibit the outstanding electrochemical properties due to the presence of biomolecules on the biogenic AgNPs surface, which facilitates the effective attaching of AgNPs on the carbon surface of the screen-printed carbon electrode (SPE) through the formation of the strong C-O coordinate bonds between O atom of oxygen functional groups and C atom of SPE. The electrochemical properties of the biogenic AgNPs-modified SPE are enhanced significantly in comparison with bare SPE and pure AgNPs-SPE. The biogenic AgNPs-SPE is applied successfully to the detection of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP). The electrochemical sensor using biogenic AgNPs can reliably detect 4-NP in the linear range from 0.1 to 25 μM with the sensitivity about 6.69 μA μM-1 cm-2. The present work reveals, as the greener synthesis method with ultra-large scalable ability, high purity, and excellent electrochemical properties of biogenic AgNPs is very promising for technological applications in high-sensitive electrochemical chemosensors, nanopharmaceuticals, and other fields.