Copper-palladium alloy nanoparticles immobilized over porous carbon for voltammetric determination of dimetridazole

Abstract

In this work, we study the prospect of using biomass waste material, such as teak (Tectona grandis) leaves, as a carbon precursor in the development of new carbon material for the sustainable electrochemical (EC) sensor application. We successfully immobilized copper-palladium alloy nanoparticles decorated on a teak leaves carbon (Cu-Pd@TLC) nanocomposite via a simple microwave-carbonization process. A variety of physicochemical and EC methods were employed to characterize the morphology, structural, and EC properties of the nanocomposite. A screen-printed electrode modified with the composite (Cu-Pd@TLC/SPCE) was tested for EC sensing of dimetridazole (DMT, an anti-fungal/protozoal drug). The voltammetric signal increases linearly in the in the range of 0.15–119.4 μM; 144.4–746.9 μM, limit of detection (LOD) of 0.015 µM, and analytical sensitivity of 0.79 µA µM–1 cm–2, respectively. The sensor was successfully applied to the determination of DMT even in the presence of human real samples, including urine and serum with satisfactory recovery results. Moreover, the Cu-Pd@TLC nanocomposite exhibited an extraordinary performance for catalytic reduction of DMT with a pseudo-first order rate constant (k) of ca. 1412 s−1, as verified by UV–vis spectroscopy. The proposed nanocomposite is a suitable platform for prospective electro-catalytic and catalytic applications.