Advanced epoxy-carbon fabric-graphene nanocomposite for electro-chemical sensing

Epoxy composites with graphene nanoplatelets as electrode material were investigated for applications in electrochemical sensing based of their excellent electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties. The performance of the composites with graphene platelets of 0.5 to 5 weight percent in epoxy matrix did not show satisfactory performance. Hence, an 8-ply carbon fabric with incorporation of 1 weight percent of graphene into the epoxy matrix was used to improve the electrochemical performance of the composite. Presence of carbon fabric with graphene resulted in exceptional improvement of the electrode material in studies involving cyclovoltammetry with sea water as electrolyte. Studies on electrochemical impedance spectroscopy confirmed the performance of the composite as a good electrode material for electrochemical sensing of thiourea in sea water. Both the selectivity and sensitivity of the epoxy-carbon fabric-graphene electrode was established to be satisfactory by cyclovoltammetry. The linear range of detection of the novel electrode material was 10 to 1000 μM, the detection limit was 12 μM and the electrode sensitivity of 1.75 mA · mM-1 with the relative standard deviation of the measurements being 2.5 %. Since the composite was not subjected to any surface pretreatment, it is regarded a promising electrode material for use in electroanalysis.