Simultaneous detection of acetaminophen and 4-aminophenol with an electrochemical sensor based on silver–palladium bimetal nanoparticles and reduced graphene oxide

In this paper, Ag–Pd bimetallic nanoparticles uniformly distributed on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) were synthesized by redox reaction between Pd2+, Ag+and GO, and were characterized by X-ray diffractometry, field emission scanning electron microscopy, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and thermal gravimetric analyses. A novel electrochemical sensor was constructed based on these nanocomposites using glassy carbon as a substrate. Under optimal conditions, the linear ranges were 0.50–300.00 μM for PA and 1.00–300.00 μM for 4-AP, with the detection limits of 0.23 μM for PA and 0.013 μM for 4-AP, respectively. This sensor was successfully applied to the determination of PA in pharmaceutical formulations and gave satisfactory results with a lower detection limit, wider linear range and good reproducibility.