ORIGINAL PAPER A simple architecture of cellulose microfiber/reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite for the electrochemical determination of nitrobenzene in sewage water Paramasivam Balasubramanian . T. S. T. Balamurugan . Shen-Ming Chen . Tse-Wei Chen . Tien-Wen Tseng . Bih-Show Lou Received: 1 October 2017 / Accepted: 21 February 2018 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract Biomaterial nano architectures have become an eminent building block in bio-electronics. A green nano composite of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) supported cellulose microfiber (CMF) was used in an electrochemical assay of nitrobenzene (NB). The synthesized composite was characterized via Fourier Transform Infra-Red spectra, Raman spectroscopy, Scanning electron microscopy and EDX spectroscopy. The CMF-RGO film modified glassy carbon electrode showed promising electrocat- alytic activity towards NB reduction in terms of high sensitivity (733.8 lA mM -1 cm -2 ), broad dynamic range (0.2–927.7 lM), and a decent limit of detection (88 nM). On top of this, the composite was used to analyze the water samples collected from river, sewage, and pond aquarium with satisfactory results. In addition, the fabricated sensor matrix offers good durability and appreciable reproducibility. Electrocat- alytic performance of the constructed assay was comparable with the reported NB sensors matrices. Keywords Cellulose microfiber Á RGO Á Nitrobenzene Á Aquatic pollutants Á Water analysis Introduction Nitrobenzene (NB) is an eminent member of aromatic nitro compounds possessing oncogenic activity, a key component of explosives, pesticides, and broadly expelled to environment through dye industries (Zhang et al. 2013). Even a little consumption of NB in eco and biological system is highly hazardous, and causes respiratory diseases, nausea and vomiting (Holder 1999a, b). United States environmental pol- lution agency (USEPA) categorized NB as a major pollutant and B2 carcinogen fact to their lethal impact over human health and environmental destruction (Wang et al. 2013; Holder and Jinot 1998). These findings uphold the necessity to develop a simple, economic and sensitive tool for the detection of trace level NB from ecological samples. Though, numerous P. Balasubramanian Á T. S. T. Balamurugan Á S.-M. Chen (&) Á T.-W. Chen Á T.-W. Tseng Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 106, Taiwan, ROC e-mail: smchen78@ms15.hinet.net T. S. T. Balamurugan Institute of Biochemical and Biomedical Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 106, Taiwan, ROC B.-S. Lou (&) Chemistry Division, Center for General Education, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan, ROC e-mail: blou@mail.cgu.edu.tw B.-S. Lou Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan, ROC 123 Cellulose https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-018-1719-1