Facile one-pot synthesis of Au–PEDOT/rGO nanocomposite for highly sensitive detection of caffeic acid in red wine sample

This paper demonstrates that Au–PEDOT/reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite (Au–PEDOT/rGO) can be rapidly synthesized through a facile, cost-effective one-pot method with chloroauric acid as the oxidant and NaBH 4 as the reductant successively. The morphology, composition and structure of the obtained composites were confirmed by SEM, TEM, XRD, Raman and XPS characterizations. The Au–PEDOT/rGO modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) showed significantly improved charge transfer efficiency and high electrocatalytic activity toward caffeic acid (CA) oxidation as compared to bare GCE and Au-PEDOT modified electrode. Under optimized conditions, the Au–PEDOT/rGO constructed sensors exhibited a wide linear range of 0.01–46   μM with the correlation coefficient of 0.9926 and a detection limit as low as 0.004   μM for the detection of CA. To validate its possible application, the present sensor was also illustrated with satisfactory anti-interference performance, high reproducibility and sensitivity for the determination of CA in red wine sample. The prepared Au–PEDOT/rGO nanocomposite is a promising electrode material for the determination of CA in red wines or other CA-containing food and beverage.