One-pot synthesis of Mn3O4/graphitic carbon nanoparticles for simultaneous nanomolar detection of Pb(II), Cd(II) and Hg(II)

In this paper, a facile one-step sucrose–nitrate decomposition method has been proposed to synthesis Mn3O4 nanoparticles (Mns)/graphitic carbon. The prepared material has been characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectrometer, surface area analysis and transmission electron microscopy. The prepared Mns/graphitic carbon is drop-casted on glassy carbon electrode to allow the fabrication of electrochemical sensors for the simultaneous detection of Pb(II), Cd(II) and Hg(II) at nanomolar (nM) levels in aqueous solutions via differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry. The proposed Mns/graphitic carbon sensors exhibit a wide linear range from 20 to 680 nM towards the simultaneous sensing of Cd(II), Pb(II) and Hg(II), and the corresponding limits of detection were found to be 0.48 × 10−11, 9.66 × 10−11 and 0.51 × 10−11 M, respectively. The practical application of the proposed sensor is evaluated within a real battery, industrial and chrome plating effluents.