Ferricyanide Confined in a Protonated Amine-Functionalized Silica Film on Gold: Application to Electrocatalytic Sensing of Nitrite Ions

An amine-functionalized porous sol–gel silica film was shown to be an effective platform to immobilize small anionic redox mediators of high solubility on solid electrodes by electrostatic interaction. The highly soluble mediator hexacyanoferrate was used as a model. The film was grown and firmly anchored on a gold electrode surface via thiol groups of a self-assembled monolayer of (3-mercaptopropyl)trimethoxysilane. Film growth and thickness were controlled by electrochemical modulation of pH at the electrode/solution interface in a sol of a hydrolyzed solution of tetraethoxysilane and 3-2-(2-aminoethylamino)ethylamino]propyltrimethoxysilane by the application of a negative potential to the electrode. Protonation of the amine groups made the amine-functionalized surface useful to immobilize hexacyanoferrate on gold. Thus, the immobilization is pH dependent, being highly effective in strongly acidic medium. Cyclic voltammetry and scanning electron microscopy were used to characterize the film and to optimize the experimental conditions. The stability of the film was demonstrated by applying the catalytic properties of the hexacyanoferrate containing surface for nitrite sensing using a flow injection analysis (FIA) system. Under the optimized conditions, the sensor exhibited high sensitivity, low detection limit, easy handling, and stability with a linear range from 1.0 to 40.0?µmol?L^?1 and a detection limit of 0.53?µmol?L^?1 based on a signal-to-noise ratio of 3. The sensor was successfully applied to nitrite determination in water samples using FIA with excellent recoveries.