A novel electrochemical sensor based on one-dimensional porous bimetallic CoCu-CN nanocomposites derived from MOF-on-MOF for simultaneous detection of acetaminophen and p-aminophenol

In this work, a MOF-on-MOF synthesis strategy was employed to successfully prepare (ZIF-8)-on-(CoCu-MOF) composites, which were further pyrolyzed at high temperature to obtain CoCu-CN nanomaterials. The morphological and structural properties of the materials were systematically investigated using SEM, FTIR, XRD and XPS. A novel sensor of CoCu-CN/GCE was constructed at a glassy carbon (GC) substrate, which exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity to redox reactions of acetaminophen (PA) and p-aminophenol (4-AP). Under optimal conditions, the CoCu-CN/GCE sensor can be employed to detect simultaneously PA and 4-AP in the wider linear ranges of 0.05–270.00 μM and 0.05–170.00 μM, respectively with the lower detection limits of 0.020 μM and 0.019 μM respectively. Practical sample analysis for pharmaceutical and lake water gave satisfactory results. The proposed sensor displays excellent selectivity and stability with potential analytical applications