Figure 1 specifies XRD patteren of the prestine MnWO4 and Ag-MnWO4 materials preformed at wide ranges from 20 to 80 degree. The intensity of all peaks are distinct and well exposed from the materials confirming their crystalinity nature and the charecteristic peaks are matched with pure phase of MnWO4 material (JCPDS-74-1497). There are no separate peaks of pure silver or silver oxide materials charecterising the purity of the material. The silver atoms are present in the lattice sites or the vacancy positions of the cystal structure. The synthesized materials possess monoclinic crystal structure with lattice parameters: a = 4.820 Å, b = 5.760 Å, and c = 4.970 Å respectively.
Morphological feature and EDX spectrum of the Ag doped MnWO4 material are depicted in Fig. 2. From the FESEM images, Ag-MnWO4 material shows nanorod like morphology but individual nanorods are conversed to form flower like structure. The width of the nanorods is 50–100 nm and the flower is some micrometers respectively. The nanorods are distinct in shape, size and closely packed with each other in different orientations forming charming microflowers. The microflowers are also homogeneous, uniform and spread in marked fashion. The atomic percentage of the constituent elements is Mn (14.74%), W (15.12%), O (69.76%) and Ag (0.39%) with well-defined stoichiometric ratio.
3.1 Cycli Voltametric (CV) study of Ag-MnWO4 material
To analyze the electrochemical activity of Ag doped MnWO4 materials, CV experiment was executed in 10 mL NaOH solution taking the three electrodes; Pt wire as a counter, Ag/AgCl as a reference electrode and the crimped Ni foam as the working electrode. The measurements were performed in the potential range of 0 to 0.7 V at a sweep rate of 20 mVs− 1 to observe the electrocatalytic as well as glucose catalytic activity of the synthesized materials. For Ag-MnWO4 material, CV of bare electrode without the presence of glucose concentration was executed then CV of different concentrations of glucose was executed in the same potential range as shown in Fig. 3(a). The anodic oxidation peak (Iap) at 0.58 V and cathodic reduction peak (Icp) at 0.4 V respectively were observed precisely and assigned to the pure MnWO4 material [24, 25]. The small oxidation hump at 0.4 V and reduction at 0.18 V is assigned to Ag atom [26–28].
The mechanism of glucose oxidation and sensing may be explained as follow; the catalytic metal ions associate with MnWO4 material form into Mn-OOH [26–28] and W-OOH compounds in the aqueous solution as below
MnWO4 + 2OH−+H2O ↔MnOOH + WOOH + e− (1)
MnOOH + OH− ↔ MnO2 + H2O + e− (2)
Mn(III) + Glucose →Mn(II) + Gluconolactone (3)
When CV performs in the applied potential, Mn and W species hydrolyse to form MnOOH and WOOH compounds by releasing two electrons. Similarly, glucose molecule (GL) dissociates to design gluconolactone (GE) by giving up two electrons into the solution. The oxidation of metal ions and glucose molecules happen simultaneously and distinct peaks appear in the applied potential range. The oxidation of glucose molecule is incorporated by Mn and W ions but the rate of oxidation of metal ions determine the rate of detection of glucose molecules. Thus, the sensing of glucose molecule is by virtue of its electro and biocatalytic nature of the material. The rate of quantization and sensing performances can be modulated by switching morphology and substrate of the materials as well as other parameters like pH and molarity of aqueous solution.
The magnitude of redox peak current has increased at every addition of glucose molecules due interaction and participation more electrons as shown in Fig. 3(b). The linearity of oxidation peak current signifies the mutual coordination and cordial activity between material and glucose concentration. The CV of different scan rates were performed in the aforesaid potential and its result is depicted in Fig. 3 (c) demonstrating the uniformity and homogeneous nature of diffusion and kinetic coefficient of the interacting species [9, 29].
3.2 Chronoamperometric (CA) Study of Ag-MnWO4 material
The amperometric response of Ag-MnW\({O}_{4}\) was analyzed taking 140 ml of NaOH solution and a potential of 0.47 V was applied to the three electrodes to notice the staircase like current response of the synthesized material. When 5 µM of glucose analyte was pipped into the solution, the originating current increased instantly and saturated horizontally giving its response time of 8 s as shown in Fig. 5(b). After that, different amount of glucose concentrations were added successively at an interval of 70 s as shown in Fig. 4(a) to distinguish the electrocatalytic receprocation of the material with increasing glucose concentrations. Figure 4(b) shows the calibration curve of the material which performs linear activity with enhancing glucose molecules. The sensitivity of the Ag-MnWO4 of the material is calculated as 17.9 µAµM− 1cm− 2 in the linear range 5-110 µM and 6.12 µA µM− 1cm− 2 in linear range of 110–450 µM respectively. Table 1 represents the glucose sensing performance of the synthesized material with similar kind of materials and confirmed its good sensing properties.
Table 1
glucose sensing performance of the synthesized material with similar kind of materials
Electrode | Sensitivity (µAµM− 1cm− 2) | Linear range (µM) | Response time (s) | Reference |
NiMoO4 | 0.193 | 0.01-8 mM | 2 | [30] |
CuFe2O4 | 0.637 | 0.6–5.6 mM | -- | [31] |
NiMn2O4 | 1.31 | 2 µM -20 mM | 3.5 | [32] |
MnWO4 | 6.7 | 5-110 | 12 | [25] |
Ag-MnWO4 | 17.9 | 5-110 | 8 | Present Work |
3.3 Interference Study of Ag-MnWO4 material
Interference study or selectivity towards glucose analytes is important for glucose sensor and it is executed at 0.47 V potential in the presence of matrix of other chemical and biomolecules. At first 0.05 M of different glucose correlating species like ascorbic acid (AA), uric acid(UA), dopamine (DA), lactic acid (LA) and maltose (M) were dissolved in 10 ml of NaOH solution separately then 10 µM of each interfering species were pipped into the solution continuously at an interval of 70 s as shown in Fig. 4(c). The Ag doped MnWO4 material showed high selectivity toward glucose molecules and very low catalytic to other molecules. Similarly, interference effect was studied taking the similar kind of glucose species like Maltose(MA), Sucrose (SA),Lactose(LA), D-Galactose (D-GL) and its result is depicted in Fig. 5(a) The stability of the sensitivity performance is confirmed by testing three independent electrodes and the error of ± 3% was recorded as shown in Fig. 5(c). It is predicted that the Ag-MnWO4 material is a good glucose catalytic materials for the industrial applications.