%0 Journal Article
%T Copper Micro-Flowers for Electrocatalytic Sensing of Nitrate Ions in Water.
%A Farina R
%A D'Arrigo G
%A Alberti A
%A Scalese S
%A Capuano GE
%A Corso D
%A Screpis GA
%A Coniglio MA
%A Condorelli GG
%A Libertino S
%J Sensors (Basel)
%V 24
%N 14
%D 2024 Jul 11
%M 39065899
%F 3.847
%R 10.3390/s24144501
%X The progressive increase in nitrate's (NO3-) presence in surface and groundwater enhances environmental and human health risks. The aim of this work is the fabrication and characterization of sensitive, real-time, low-cost, and portable amperometric sensors for low NO3- concentration detection in water. Copper (Cu) micro-flowers were electrodeposited on top of carbon screen-printed electrodes (SPCEs) via cyclic voltammetry (with voltage ranging from -1.0 V to 0.0 V at a scan rate of 0.1 V s-1). The obtained sensors exhibited a high catalytic activity toward the electro-reduction in NO3-, with a sensitivity of 44.71 μA/mM. They had a limit of detection of 0.87 µM and a good dynamic linear concentration range from 0.05 to 3 mM. The results were compared to spectrophotometric analysis. In addition, the devices exhibited good stability and a maximum standard deviation (RSD) of 5% after ten measurements; reproducibility, with a maximum RSD of 4%; and repeatability after 10 measurements with the RSD at only 5.63%.