Design and synthesis of multilevel structured Co3O4 double-shell dodecahedron as non-enzymatic electrochemical sensor for H2O2 detection

Abstract In this work, we used ZIF-67 as a template to prepare multilevel structured Co3O4 with a high surface area. The synthesized materials were characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD and N2 physisorption.The double-shell dodecahedron multileve structure of Co3O4 (DS Co3O4) was found to have the most favorable morphology and largest specific surface area, and was demonstrated to be an effective electrochemical non-enzymatic H2O2 sensor. The efficiency is due to the unique multilevel structure of DS Co3O4, providing abundant active sites for H2O2 oxidation. The sensor showed a fast response time of 5 s, a high sensitivity of 1168.9 µA·mM− 1cm− 2 and a detection limit of 0.048 µM (S/N = 3) in the linear range 0.0005–10 mM, significantly better than other reported high performance Co3O4-based H2O2 sensors. The as-fabricated DS Co3O4/RDE materials are promising sensors for H2O2 due to their excellent sensitivity, selectivity and long-term stability.