Un-doped and Er-adsorbed layered Nb2C MXene for efficient hydrazine sensing application

In this work, 2D Nb2C MXene, synthesized from the wet-chemical etching route, is used as direct electrode material for electrochemical hydrazine sensing. Also, the Erbium (Er)adsorbed Nb2C MXene was prepared using the hydrothermal process in a weight-percentage ratio of 2.5%, 5%, 7.5% and 10%. The X-ray diffraction of Nb2C and Er-doped Nb2C samples confirmed the existence of 2D MXene structure with c-lattice parameter increase from 13.83 Å to 22.7 Å and successful adsorption of Er into MXene, respectively. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) shows the layered structure morphology of all the samples with clear sheet separation. The sample with the highest surface area, determined by Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) technique, was used for hydrazine sensing using cyclic voltammetry and linear sweep voltammetry techniques. The sensitivity for MXene and Er-doped sample was observed to be 169µA m−1 M−1 cm−2 and 276µA m−1 M−1 cm−2, respectively which shows that the Er-doped MXene is much more sensitive than the unmodified one. Our results provide hydrazine sensing ability for 2D Nb2C MXene as well as Er-doped Nb2C which will help explore their potential for future sensor applications.