Investigation of Hybrid Epoxy Composite Electrodes for Electrochemical Applications

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the feasibility of epoxy-based electrodes for electrochemical sensors. Epoxy is a durable polymer and can lead to chemically stable electrodes, but it has a low conductivity. By adding nanoparticles with high conductivity to it, its conductivity can be significantly enhanced. A novel electrode material has been realized based on an epoxy nanocomposite and has been investigated in a three-electrode electrochemical sensor. A comparison between three types of dispersions in terms of time optimization was carried out by running cyclic voltammetry in ferric ferrocyanide solution A significantly enhancement in the electrochemical activity is carried out for this redox couple between the three types of electrodes. The results show, that an extremely small quantity of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) of 1 wt. % and silver nanoparticles (Ags) of 0.2 wt. % is necessary to reach an acceptable conductivity about 0.1 S/m by a sonication time of 40 min. The obtained novel epoxy sensor with 40 min dispersion is applicable for electrochemical applications; since we reached an electroactive surface area about 0.1 mm2 and a peak potential separation ($\mathrm{\Delta} \text{Ep}$) of 0.459 V, which are better than those obtained in 30 min and 50 min dispersion under the same conditions.