Channel-engineered carbon molecular sieves via anisotropic molecular sieve templating for ultrasensitive electrochemical monitoring of P-Nitrophenol

In this study, a porous carbon material — carbon molecular sieve (CMS) is proposed by pyrolysis of inorganic molecular sieve infiltrated with organic molecules. During the pyrolysis, the architecture of molecular sieve offers nucleation framework for carbon atoms under the inert atmosphere. Thus, the CMS replicates the structure merit of molecular sieve, being characterized with ordered channels and cavities. The obtained CMS went through a series of materials characterization, showing the CMS was containing lots of ordered cavity structure with majority of mesopores. Meanwhile the CMS was highly graphitized, which could speed up electron and mass transfer on its surface. To demonstrate the excellent electrochemical properties of CMS, it was drop-coating onto the surface of GCE to fabricate a CMS/GCE electrode. The composite electrode was employed for the detection of p-nitrophenol, a highly toxic environmental pollutant, demonstrating its excellent performance in the electrocatalytic oxidation response. A series of electrochemical tests were carried out to optimize the detection of p-nitrophenol. Under the optimized conditions, the quantification of p-nitrophenol is achieved from 2.0 to 1000 μM with a detection limit of 0.2 μM (S/N = 3).