A novel photoelectrochemical sensor based on flower-like SnS2, sea urchin-like AgBiS2 and graphene oxide nanocomposite film for efficient and sensitive detection of acetaminophen in lake water samples

Abstract

As an emerging detection technology, photoelectrochemical sensors have been widely noticed for their unique technical features. Among others, the technology has been widely used in the fields of drug, biological antibody or antigen and contaminant detection. Secondly, acetaminophen, as a novel environmental pollutant, is difficult to be degraded in the ecosystem, which in turn causes serious impacts on the ecosystem. Therefore, in this work, we designed a photoelectrochemical sensor based on a composite film of flower-like SnS2, sea urchin-like AgBiS2 and graphene oxide for the detection of acetaminophen in water samples. Among them, graphene oxide, as a two-dimensional carbon-based material, can immobilize other photoelectric materials well. In addition, the flower-like SnS2 and sea urchin-like AgBiS2 can enhance the intensity of the photoelectric response due to their synergistic effect. Notably, the combination of graphene oxide with SnS2 and AgBiS2 revealed an exponential increase in the photoresponse intensity, indicating that SnS2/AgBiS2/GO has a satisfactory photoresponse intensity. At the same time, the photoelectrochemical sensor exhibited sensitive detection performance (LOD = 4 nM) and a wide detection range (0.01–50 μM) for acetaminophen under optimal detection conditions. Moreover, it also showed excellent detection performance in the detection of actual water samples, indicating that it can be applied to the detection of acetaminophen in lakes.