A flexible electrochemical sensor for paracetamol based on porous honeycomb-like NiCo-MOF nanosheets

The overdose of 4-aminophenol (AP) threatens human health, and the determination of AP is crucial. Here, we report a flexible electrochemical sensor for highly sensitive and precise determination of AP. The ultrathin honeycomb-like NiCo-MOF nanosheets were in situ grown on free-standing flexible carbon cloth (CC) electrode. The porous structure among nanosheets and rich porosity of NiCo-MOF shorten the transport path of electrolyte ions and reactants, ensuring fast electron transport. The large specific surface area (62.14 m 2 ·g −1 ) provides much active site, and NiCo-MOF exhibits high catalytic activity toward AP. The proposed NiCo-MOF/CC-based sensor showed a wide linear range from 5.0 to 400 μmol·L −1 with a detection limit of 1.0 μmol·L −1 . The selectivity, reproducibility and stability were also verified to be satisfactory. In addition, it can detect AP in real pills. The developed flexible sensor endows its promising potential in fabrication of wearable devices. Graphical abstract