MOF derived porous carbon modified rGO for simultaneous determination of hydroquinone and catechol

Metal organic framework (MOF), as an emerging type of porous materials, has attracted great interest in numerous fields. In this study, combining the advantages of MOF derived carbon and reduce graphite oxide (rGO), two types of MOF derived carbon modified reduced graphite oxide (ZIF-8C@rGO) were developed. When applied as electrode modifier in an electrochemical determination of hydroquinone (HQ) and catechol (CC), the obtained ZIF-8C@rGO exhibits remarkably improved selectivity and sensitivity than the ZIF-8C counterpart, attributable to the synergistic effect of the self-templated ZIF-8C anchors and the graphitized rGO substrate. Electrochemical results show that the ZIF-8C@rGO based sensor exhibits a wide linear range of 0.5 to 70   μM for both HQ and CC, with low detection limits of 0.073   μM for HQ and 0.076   μM for CC, respectively. A trial of monitoring HQ and CC in real water sample demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed ZIF-8C@rGO based sensor.