Electrodeposition of gold nanoparticles decorated single polypyrrole nanowire for arsenic detection in potable water: a chemiresistive sensor device

Electrodeposition of gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) decorated single polypyrrole nanowire (Ppy-NW) for arsenic (As) detection was studied in this paper. Arsenic is a toxic element, which exists in variety of chemical forms. Arsenic forms combined with groundwater and soil is leading to toxicity and creating health risks, hence the requirement of its detection arises. The present study is to develop a highly sensitive Au-NPs decorated Ppy-NW based sensor for detecting the trace amounts of arsenic (As 3+ ). The chemiresistive method was adopted for detecting the sensitivity of the arsenic traces. A 200 nm in diameter Ppy nanowires were developed using anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template based synthesis and decorated with Au-NPs and further tested for arsenic sensing. The response of arsenic with the sensors was recorded by chemiresistive method with varying potential between ±100 mV. The sensitivity of Au-NPs decorated Ppy-NW towards arsenic (for two set of As conc. range) was observed to be 0.22 and 4.38 µM −1 and the detection limit of the sensor was observed to be 0.32 µM