Facile synthesis of Cu bismuthate nanosheets and sensitive electrochemical detection of tartaric acid

Cu bismuthate nanosheets have been synthesized by a facile hydrothermal process. The structure and morphology of the nanosheets are analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution TEM (HRTEM). Electrochemical performance for the determination of tartaric acid using Cu bismuthate nanosheets has also been analyzed by cyclic voltammetric (CV) method. XRD pattern shows that the Cu bismuthate nanosheets are composed of tetragonal CuBi 2 O 4 phase. Electron microscopy observations indicate that the Cu bismuthate nanosheets have the polycrystalline structure with the thickness of about 50 nm and width of 300 nm-2 μm. The morphological and structural evolution of the products have been analyzed by controlling the hydrothermal temperature and reaction time. The Cu bismuthate nanosheets modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) is used to investigate the electrochemical performance for the detection of tartaric acid in 0.1 M KCl electrolyte. A pair of semi-reversible CV peaks are located at −0.45 V and −0.02 V at the Cu bismuthate nanosheets modified GCE in 2 mM tartaric acid. The calculated detection limit is 1.6 μM at the signal to noise ratio of 3 with tartaric acid concentration of 0.005–2 mM. The nanosheets modified GCE shows good application promising for the electrochemical detection of biological molecules.