Melt quenched vanadium oxide embedded in graphene oxide sheets as composite electrodes for amperometric dopamine sensing and lithium ion battery applications

Abstract Electrochemical sensors and lithium-ion batteries are two important topics in electrochemistry that have attracted much attention owing to their extensive applications in enzyme-free biosensors and portable electronic devices. Herein, we report a simple hydrothermal approach for synthesizing composites of melt quenched vanadium oxide embedded on graphene oxide of equal proportion (MVGO50) for the fabrication of electrodes for nonenzymatic amperometic dopamine sensor and lithium-ion battery applications. The sensing performance of MVGO50 electrodes through chronoamperometry studies in 0.1 M PBS solution (at pH 7) over a wide range of dopamine concentration exhibited a highest sensitivity of 25.02 μA mM−1 cm−2 with the lowest detection limit of 0.07 μM. In addition, the selective sensing capability of MVGO50 was also tested through chronoamperometry studies by the addition of a very small concentration of dopamine (10 μM) in the presence of a fairly higher concentration of uric acid (10 mM) as the interfering species. Furthermore, the reversible lithium cycling properties of MVGO50 are evaluated by galvanostatic charge-discharge cycling studies. MVGO50 electrodes exhibited enhanced rate capacity of up to 200 mAhg−1 at a current of 0.1C rate and remained stable during cycling. These results indicate that MVGO composites are potential candidates for electrochemical device applications.