Sustainable Strategy for Fabricating Porous Carbon Nanorods with Enhanced Electroactivity for Determination of Ascorbic Acid

An economical and sustainable approach was proposed for the fabrication of two-end-open carbon nanorods within three-dimensional interconnected hierarchical porous structure, which was utilized to modify the glass carbon electrode(GCE) for detecting ascorbic acid (AA) for the first time. The constructed PCNRs/GCE displayed a statistical linear concentration range of 8-500 µM and 0.5-9.615 mM for AA with a detection limit of 0.11 µmol L^− 1 based on a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of 3 with the ideal amount of modification. It featured superior stability, repeatability, selectivity, and anti-interference capability. An electrochemical kinetic investigation revealed the superior electrochemical performance could be ascribed to the rapid ion transport and electron transfer between electrode surface and AA triggering by surface adsorption control. It is related to the large surface area, excellent conductivity, and abundant electroactive sites/defects, which are attracted to its unique structure. The determination feasibility was evaluated in juice with recovery rates from 99.8–100.4%% and relative standard deviation of below 3%. The PCNRs demonstrate significant potential as an effective material for ascorbic acid electrochemical sensor systems.