Facile preparation of silver nanoparticle decorated RGO nanostructures with enhanced simultaneous detection property for hydroquinone and catechol

Well-dispersed reduced graphene oxide (RGO) nanostructures with uniform decoration of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on them have been prepared through a hydrothermal process followed by the freeze-drying method. The obtained graphene-layer-like structure with uniform distribution of AgNPs have then been applied on the glassy carbon electrodes (GCE) to detect different concentration of hydroquinone (HQ) and catechol (CC) in their mixed solutions. Because of such well-dispersed structure and uniform distribution of AgNPs, the AgNPs/RGO/GCE illustrated enhanced simultaneous detection performance for HQ and CC. In the HQ and CC mixed solution with pH of 6.0, the AgNPs/RGO/GCE electrode exhibits a wide linear range of HQ (0.18–130 μM) and CC (0.07–120 μM), and accurate limit of detection (2.37 × 10−2 μM for HQ and 5.8 × 10−2 μM for CC). Thus, it is believed that the AgNPs/RGO nanostructures shows a great potential of applying as possible probes for simultaneous detection of HQ and CC in real environment.