Preparation Of Gold And Silver Nanoparticles Using Dopamine As Reducing Agent And Its Application In Glucose Sensors And Solar Cells

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the brain,which exists widely in nature.Polydopamine(PDA)formed by the oxidation of dopamine is an important polymer and multifunctional surface modifier,in particular,for coating various surfaces.In this paper,the self-polymerization of dopamine in alkaline environment was studied.Au,Ag nanoparticles(NPs)/ITO composite electrodes were prepared using dopamine as reducing agent,and their application in glucose sensor and polymer solar cells was discussed.Using dopamine and PDA as reducing agents,the metal ions were converted into metal NPs,and the formed metal NPs were further attached to the conductive ITO substrate with the help of the excellent adhesion of PDA.In this paper,two methods were used to prepare the electrodes,which were SILAR and Polymerization-Dipping respectively.The morphology and properties of the composite electrodes prepared by these two methods were deeply compared.The prepared Au,Ag NPs/ITO glucose sensor based on these two methods show a good sensitivity and suitable detection limit,which can meet the requirements of the actual detection(3-8 mM).Au NPs/ITO glucose sensor originated from Polymerization-Dipping method exhibited a high sensitivity of 107 uA·mM-1·cm-2.Through combining the advantages of double metal,the sensitivity of Ag-Au NPs/ITO glucose sensor based on SILAR method can reach 145.47 uA·mM-1·cm-2.It is worth mentioning that Au NPs exhibit a strong surface plasmon resonance deduced from its surface enhanced Raman scattering and absorption spectra.Enhancement of optical absorption based on the local surface plasmon resonance effect has a certain influence on the performance of polymer solar cells.The electrode prepared by Polymerization-Dipping method can improve the open circuit voltage of P3HT:PC61BM the solar cell,which broken the limit of 0.6 V;Under atmospheric conditions,the photoelectric conversion efficiency can reach 1.39%when the Au NPs/ITO composite electrode based on the SILAR method was applied to the solar cell as the anode.