Fabrication of Poly(Ani-co-Py)/NiO Composites with Superb Photocatalytic Performance and Effective p-Nitrophenol Sensor

The Poly(Ani-co-Py)NiO composites consisting of a co-polymer of polyaniline (PANI) and polypyrrole (PPy) have been synthesized using various proportions of NiO (0.25-3.00 wt%) by employing a chemical oxidation polymerization method. Along with the photoluminescence (PL) and morphological features, the composites’ photocatalytic potential, and their application as a p-Nitrophenol (p-NP) sensor were also extensively evaluated. The confirmation of the significant interaction between NiO and Poly(Ani-co-Py) was obtained through FTIR, UV-visible, and PL spectroscopy. FESEM data of composites revealed the distinct morphology of the composites with a diameter of 50–120 nm. As a potential photocatalytic use of the composites, the results showed better photocatalytic degradation ability towards methylene blue than the copolymer. Furthermore, the composites were employed for the development of a p-NP sensor probe. The developed Poly(Ani-Co-Py)/NiO/PEDOT: PSS/GCE sensor probe showed a higher sensitivity (12.658 µA.µM^− 1cm^− 2 ) over a large linear dynamic range (LDR) from 0.1µM to 80.0 µM (linearity, r²: 0.9917) with a lower detection limit (LOD; 0.075 µM) and limit of quantification (LOQ; 0.22727 µM) in the detection of p-NP by using linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) technique. It has introduced a new path for the detection of environmentally unsafe chemicals using the electrochemical approach.