In situ growth of microporous ZnO nanorods on ITO for dopamine oxidization

Microporous ZnO nanorods (NRs) in situ growth on indium tin oxide (ITO) glass substrate was successfully prepared via a simple hydrothermal reaction and without porous template. The special nanostructures of ZnO were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results indicated that the nanostructures of ZnO were microporous in the top plane of the hexagonal wurtzite structure and uniformly distributed on the ITO substrate. Furthermore, the sensor constructed with microporous ZnO NRs/ITO exhibited extremely high and selectively electrocatalytic activity toward the oxidation of dopamine at 0.2V with good detection limit of 0.45μM and wide linear range from 2μM to 777μM even in the presence of ascorbic acid and uric acid.