Voltammetric and spectroscopic studies of water/formamide ratios in the production of the cerium (III) hexacyanoferrate (II) nanoparticles

The present study describes the simple and fast preparation of Cerium (III) hexacyanoferrate (II) (CeHCF) solid nanoparticles at three different water/formamide (%) ratios used as solvent (v/v) (100:0, 80:20, 0:100). CeHCF nanoparticles (Nps) were characterized by fourier transform infrared pectroscopy (FTIR), x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), zeta potential and cyclic voltammetry (CV). Electrodes modified with CeHCF presented a well-defined redox pair with formal potential (E^o′) of approximately 0.29 V (vs. Ag/AgCl(sat) attributed to the Fe^{2 +}/Fe³⁺ redox pair in the presence of cerium (III)). The Nps in the three systems investigates, presents a random size distribution to different surface, where most were distributed between 20 and 160 nm. Considering the three investigated systems, only CeHCF-1 (100:0) was sensitive to L-dopamine, presenting a linear signal region as a function of L-dopamine concentrations, with a limit of detection (LD) of 0.125 mmol L⁻¹, limit of quantification (LQ) of 0.419 mmol L⁻¹ and amperometric sensitivity (S) of 148.16 μA mmol L⁻¹.