Electrochemical Design of Ultrathin Palladium Coated Gold Nanoparticles as Nanostructured Catalyst for Amperometric Detection of Formaldehyde

An underpotential deposition (UPD) replacement tactic was employed to design a Pd overlayer on gold (Au) nanoparticles electrodeposited on a carbon ionic liquid electrode (CILE). Pd/Au/CILE was applied as an amperometric sensor for the determination of formaldehyde in aqueous solutions. The sensor displayed two linear ranges from 15 µM–1.4 mM and 1.4–56.7 mM of formaldehyde. The limit of detection was 3 µM of formaldehyde and the sensitivity of the sensor was 2.35 µA mM^?1, using the calibration graph in the lower range. The presence of 20 mM of formic acid and methanol and 10 mM ethanol did not interfere with the determination of formaldehyde solution.