Manipulating the structure of polyaniline by exploiting redox chemistry: Novel p-NiO/n-polyaniline/n-Si Schottky diode based chemosensor for the electrochemical detection of hydrazinobenzene

New and effective chemosensor was fabricated using p-nickel oxide (NiO)/n-conducting polyaniline (PANI) based Schottky barrier diode for the detection of hydrazinobenzene chemical. The n-PANI was synthesized through in-situ chemical doping of PANI EB by using calcium hydride as dopant and subjected to elemental analysis, optical, structural and morphological properties. The appearance of a non-linear I–V behavior at the interface of Pt and p-NiO/n-PANI layer confirmed the formation of Schottky junction of the fabricated Pt/p-NiO/n-PANI/n-Si Schottky barrier diode. The electrochemical properties of Pt/p-NiO/n-PANI/n-Si Schottky barrier diode towards the detection of hydrazinobenzene were elucidated by cyclovoltametry (CV) measurements. The sensing results revealed that the Pt/p-NiO/n-PANI/n-Si Schottky barrier diode exhibited a stable, reliable high sensitivity ∼90.5 μA mM⁻¹ cm⁻², good detection limit of ∼5.11 μM with correlation coefficient (R) of ∼0.99417 and short response time (10 s). Herein, n-type chemical doping of PANI and the formation of Schottky barrier elicited the sensing parameters such as sensitivity, detection limit and correlation coefficient.