Simple sonochemical synthesis of lanthanum tungstate (La2(WO4)3) nanoparticles as an enhanced electrocatalyst for the selective electrochemical determination of anti-scald-inhibitor diphenylamine.

In this work, lanthanum tungstate (La2(WO4)3) nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized by facile sonochemical method (elmasonic P, under-sonication 37/100 kHz, ~60 W energy) and utilized as an electrode material for the selective and sensitive electrochemical determination of anti-scald inhibitor diphenylamine (DPA). The synthesized La2(WO4)3 NPs were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDAX), Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses. The results revealed that the sonochemically synthesized La2(WO4)3 nanoparticles were with high crystallinity and uniformly distributed nanoparticles like structure. The as-prepared lanthanum tungstate NPs exhibited an excellent electrocatalytic behavior for DPA determination with the lowest detection limit of 0.0024 µM, wide linear range response of 0.01-58.06 µM and a remarkable sensitivity of 1.021 µA µM-1 cm-2. Furthermore, La2(WO4)3 NPs showed a good recovery to DPA in apple juice sample. Besides, the electrochemical mechanism of the DPA oxidation reaction was provided in detail.

Three-Dimensional Fibrous Network of Na0.21 MnO2 for Aqueous Sodium-Ion Hybrid Supercapacitors.

Sodium-ion hybrid supercapacitors are potential energy-storage devices and have recently received enormous interest. However, the development of cathode materials and the use of nonaqueous electrolyte remain a great challenge. Hence, aqueous Na-ion hybrid supercapacitors based on a three-dimensional network of NaMnO2 were developed. The cathode material was synthesized by the electro-oxidation of potassium manganese hexacyanoferrate nanocubes. The oxidized compound was confirmed to be Na0.21 MnO2 by various physical characterization methods. Manganese dioxide is a well-characterized material for aqueous asymmetric pseudocapacitors, but its usage at high operating voltages is limited due to the electrochemical stability of water. Nevertheless, high-potential and high-performance aqueous supercapacitors exhibiting a cell potential of 2.7 V were developed. Further, the practical applicability of an asymmetric supercapacitor based on NaMnO2 (cathode) and reduced graphene oxide (anode) was demonstrated by powering a 2.1 V red LED.