3D Honey-Comb like Nitrogen Self-Doped Porous Carbon Networks for High-Performance Electrochemical Detection of Antibiotic Drug Furazolidone

Abstract

Herein we report the preparation of porous activated carbon from the biomass waste material, such as Borassus flabellifer (Asian palmyra palm) shell as a carbon precursor. The structural, morphological studies reveal the formation of the 3D-graphene like porous activated carbon nanosheet (3D-PAC) from the Borassus flabellifer. Interestingly, the 3D-PAC was self-doped with nitrogen, which was confirmed from the XPS analysis. The structural, morphological, and electrochemical properties of 3D-PAC were analyzed using various physiochemical and electrochemical methods. Then for the first time, we probed the analytical behavior of 3D-PAC modified glassy carbon electrode (3D-PAC/GCE) to detect furazolidone (FZ, antibiotic drug). The effect of experimental parameters like modifier loading concentration/volume, pH, analyte accumulation time, scan rate, and sample concentration was studied based on FZ’s reduction peak current. The developed drug sensor exhibited excellent FZ detection performance, with a wide linear range from 0.5 to 290 μM, a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.5 nM, and appreciable sensitivity of 5.05 μA μM−1 cm−2. Further, the proposed sensor was also well performed in real sample (human urine) analysis with good recovery results.