Participation of Lattice Oxygen in Perovskite Oxide as a Highly Sensitive Sensor for p-Phenylenediamine Detection

The harmful effects on the human body from p-phenylenediamine (PPD) in hair dyes can cause allergies and even cancer. Therefore, it is particularly important to accurately control and detect the content of PPD in our daily products and environment. Here, a small amount of non-metallic elemental P doped in perovskite oxide of SrCoO_3−δ (SC) forms a good catalytic material, SrCo_0.95P_0.05O_3−δ (SCP), for PPD detection. The improved performance compared with that of the parent SC can be attributed to three contributing factors, including a larger amount of highly oxidative oxygen species O²²⁻/O⁻, better electrical conductivity, and more active sites on the P⁵⁺-oxygen bonds of SCP. Moreover, the lattice oxygen mechanism (LOM) with highly active species of lattice O vacancies and adsorbed –OO for electrocatalytic oxidation of PPD by the SCP/GCE (glass carbon electrode) sensor is proposed in our work. More importantly, the SCP/GCE sensor exhibits good stability, a low limit of detection, and high reliability (error < 5.78%) towards PPD determination in real samples of hair dyes, suggesting the substantial research potential for practical applications.