Nickel tungstate nanoparticles: synthesis, characterization and electrochemical sensing of mercury(II) ions

Abstract Nano particulate metal oxides gained significant research interest in recent years for various applications with the intension of exploring enhanced properties of miniaturization. In this research work, nickel tungstate nanoparticles (NiWO4 nanoparticles) were successfully synthesized via a simple and efficient sucrose-nitrate decomposition method. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized using various analytical techniques such as PXRD, SEM, TEM, BET measurements and FTIR. Transmission electron microscope images reveals the nearly spherical shaped nanoparticles of average particle size 15–35 nm. Photoluminescence characteristics of synthesized NiWO4 nanoparticles were investigated at room temperature. Further, the prepared nanoparticles were utilized as glassy carbon electrode modifier for trace level electrochemical sensing of toxic mercury present in water samples. The electrochemical behavior of mercury(II) ions at modified electrode interface has been studied by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse stripping voltammetry (DPSV). The results illustrate that, the proposed modified GCE sensor exhibits linearity between the concentration range 10–600 nM with the limit of detection 2.25 nM based on 3σ method for mercury(II) ions

Room temperature synthesis of amorphous Bi4V2O11 as cathode material for Li secondary batteries

In this paper, the amorphous Bi4V2O11 is synthesized by a simple precipitation method at room temperature. The as-prepared Bi4V2O11 was characterized by using powder XRD, FTIR, SEM/EDX techniques. The amorphous Bi4V2O11 has been tested as a cathode material for lithium secondary battery for the first time. The observed results were compared with the reported crystalline Bi4V2O11 wherein amorphous Bi4V2O11 exhibits better specific capacity and capacity retention at the charging rate of C/5. The specific capacity of 104 mA h g(-1) for the first cycle and 101 mA h g(-1) for the second cycle was observed and thereby the capacity retention of about 98% indicates the good reversibility