A facile hydrothermal reduction synthesis of multilayer flake Ag/Ni(OH)2 nanostructures and their electrocatalytic activity toward the oxidation of glucose.

Multilayer flake Ag/Ni(OH)2 nanostructures are synthesized with a facile hydrothermal reduction method. In the preparation process, N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF) is used as a reducing agent, and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) is used as a surfactant. The effects of several influencing factors such as the concentration of silver nitrate, reaction temperature and reaction time on the crystal phase of the products are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The morphology and chemical composition are characterized by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). In a three-electrode system, the electrocatalytic oxidation activity of Ag/Ni(OH)2 nanostructures for glucose was tested by cyclic voltammetry (CV) curve, current-time (i-t) responses and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results show that Ag/Ni(OH)2 modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) has better catalytic activity for glucose than the Ni(OH)2 modified electrode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]