Porous CePO4@carbon composite derived from cerium-based metal–organic framework for the simultaneous detection of dopamine, uric acid, and acetaminophen

Cerium phosphate (CePO4) has attracted increasing attention in the field of electrochemistry. In this work, a mesoporous CePO4@carbon composite was successfully prepared via the high-temperature calcination method using cerium-based metal–organic framework (Ce-MOF) as a precursor. The obtained samples were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), N2 adsorption–desorption technique, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The findings revealed that the in-situ pyrolysis of Ce-MOF generated uniform composite, which showed high electrical conductivity and plenty of catalytic active sites. These structural advantages of the composite were conductive to the electron transfer, substrate diffusion, and redox reactions. Thereafter, CePO4@carbon was developed to modify the commercially purchased glass carbon electrode (GCE: CHI 104) for simultaneous detection of dopamine (DA), uric acid (UA), and acetaminophen (APAP). The linear detection ranges for DA, UA, and APAP were 2.5–310.0 μM, 3.0–305.0 μM, and 2.5–617.0 μM, respectively. The detection limits (LOD) for DA, UA, and APAP were 0.009 μM, 0.016 μM, and 0.014 μM, respectively. Furthermore, the constructed electrode can be employed to detect the concentration of DA, UA, and APAP in real-samples. This work provides a method for manufacturing highly efficient CePO4 based materials for electrochemical sensing.