Development of a Non-Enzymatic Vitamin-C Electrochemical Sensor Based on rGO/Ce₂(SO₄)₃ Hierarchical Nanocomposite

The engineering of high-performance functional nanomaterials for efficient monitoring of Vitamin-C/Ascorbic Acid (AA) is highly desirable in the food, chemical, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries. In this regard, this report presents the engineering of novel cerous sulfate Ce₂(SO₄)₃ nanoflowers, decorated reduced graphene oxide (rGO) through an economic, energy-efficient and rapid one-pot hydrothermal strategy for electrochemical detection of AA. The obtained nanocomposite demonstrates the successful formation of nano Ce₂(SO₄)₃ with flower morphology having large surface area and potential to promote the electrolyte accessibility as well as electronic transmission during sensing phenomenon. The Ce₂(SO₄)₃/rGO (CSG) nanoflower composite was drop casted on screen printed carbon electrode (SPCE) and tested for its electrochemical detection of AA. At +0.337 V, a well-defined oxidation peak of AA occurred in phosphate buffer solution of pH 7. A linear response of the CSG electrode was further obtained under optimum conditions, for the AA concentration range of 10 − 1000 μM with a sensitivity of 0.2973 μA μM⁻¹cm⁻² and lowest detection limit of 900 μM. The excellent Vitamin-C sensing ability of CSG is attributed to the synergistic effect from the dimensional anisotropy of flower-like morphological features of Ce₂(SO₄)₃ as well as the interfacial structure. The CSG was also tested for vitamin C tablets, VeeCee-Z, to validate its commercial applicability. Furthermore, fabricated electrochemical sensor exhibited significant reproducibility (98.63%) and optimum stability. Thus, the significant findings of this work are believed to hold the prospect for sensitive and prompt determination of Vitamin-C in the industrial domains.