Noble-Metal-Free CoFeO Nanocubes Self-Assembly Monolayer for Highly Sensitive Electrochemical Detection of As(III) Based on Surface Defects.

Nanocrystals generally suffer from agglomeration because of the spontaneous reduction of the system surface energy, resulting in blocking the active sites from reacting with target ions, and then severely reducing the electrochemical sensitivity. In this article, a highly ordered self-assembled monolayer array is successfully constructed using ∼14 nm CoFeO nanocubes uniformly and controllably distributed on the surface of a working electrode (glass carbon plate). The large area and high exposure of the surface defects on CoFeO nanocubes are clearly characterized by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and atomic-resolution high-angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM). Expectedly, a considerable sensitivity of 2.12 μA ppb and a low limit of detection of 0.093 ppb are achieved for As(III) detection on this highly homogeneous sensing interface; this excellent electroanalysis performance is even better than that of noble metals electrodes. Most importantly, this approach of uniformly distributing the small-sized defective nanoparticles on the electrode surface provides a new opportunity for modifying the electrodes, as well as the realization of their applications in the field of environmental electroanalysis for heavy metal ions.