Cerium(IV) oxide decorated on reduced graphene oxide, a selective and sensitive electrochemical sensor for fenitrothion determination

Abstract

Fenitrothion is one of the common organophosphorus pesticides that is widely employed for insect control in agriculture. Here, cerium oxide@reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite (CeO2/rGO) was successfully prepared to apply as an efficient mediator for electrochemical detection of fenitrothion. The CeO2/rGO nanocomposite was characterized by various analytical methods including FT-IR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy and electrochemical techniques. Also, the morphology and characteristic of CeO2/rGO were monitored using microscopic images of transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. CeO2/rGO was employed to modify glassy carbon electrode (GCE) and resulting data was compared to rGO-GCE and unmodified GCE and some other reported sensors in literature. The electrochemical studies represented that CeO2/rGO improved the GCE by decreasing the working potentials to more acceptable one (around 0.00 V vs. Ag/AgCl) with the observable increases in the voltammetric responses towards fenitrothion concentration. The quantitative data were obtained using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) with a linear range of 0.025–2.00 μmol L−1 fenitrothion. Moreover, its detection limit was obtained as 3.0 nmol L−1 fenitrothion. Finally, CeO2/rGO-GCE represented high selective sensing towards fenitrothion in the presence of common interference species present in real well water and spring water samples provided from agricultural environment.