Sensor Properties of Pristine and Functionalized Carbon Nanohorns

Nanodispersions of pristine single-wall carbon nanohorns (i.e., p-SWCNHs) and oxidized-SWCNHs (i.e.; o-SWCNHs) were used to modify screen printed electrode (SPE). p-SWCNHs and o-SWCNHs were fully characterized by using several analytical techniques, as: HR-TEM (High Resolution-Transmission Electron Microscopy), FE-SEM/EDX (Field Emission-Scanning Electron Microscopy/Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis), Raman spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, differential thermal analysis (DTA), and the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method. The chemically modified SPEs were also characterized with Cyclic Voltammetry (CV), using several different electro-active targets. In all cases, p-SWCNHs showed better performances than those obtained for o-SWCNHs as well as with respect to conventional Glassy Carbon (GC) electrodes, in terms of peak currents, significant shift at lower redox-potential ranges and enhanced heterogeneous apparent kinetic constants.