Honeycomb films of polyoxomolybdate-surfactant hybrids and electrochemical detection of hydroquinone

Giant polyoxomolybdate Na48[H496Mo368O1464S48]·ca.1000 H2O (Mo368) is a strong candidate in materials due to its electrical properties. However, the drawbacks as instability in water and agglomeration in solid are detrimental to their readily integration into functional devices. Surface modification of Mo368 by surfactant can protect Mo368 in chloroform, and disperse Mo368 clusters avoiding to direct contact with each other, further promote the self-assembly of surfactant-encapsulated Mo368 hybrids into ordered porous honeycomb films. A water breath figure acts as good template for the self-assembly into porous honeycomb film at air/water interface. Varying the length of surfactant carbon chains, surfactant concentration, and supporting solution can influence the film morphology. Attributing to the embedded functional inorganic Mo368 clusters and the pore adsorption, as-prepared porous honeycomb film is active to detect hydroquinone with the detection limit of 3.53 µM by an amperometric response method.