Designing Hybrid Lanthanum Stannate/Functionalized Halloysite Nanotubes as Electrode Material for Electrochemical Detection of 4-(Methylamino)phenol (Metol) in Environmental Samples

Abstract

Electrochemical applications such as electrical conductivity, sensitivity, selectivity, cost-effectiveness, and sampling techniques of different forms of pyrochlore oxide have been a field of current interest. In this regard, pyrochlore structured lanthanum stannate nanoparticles (LSO) decorated with functionalized halloysite nanotubes (f-HNT) were prepared via hydrothermal followed by sonochemical synthesis. The obtained samples were characterized through various spectroscopic and microscopic methods to investigate the LSO@f-HNT structure and morphology. Electrocatalytic studies of LSO@f-HNT were performed by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) techniques. The beneficial response of LSO interacting with the hollow structured f-HNT groups of aluminol (Al–OH) and siloxane (Si–O–Si) enhances the electron transmission channel and active site size, both of which contribute to improved electrocatalytic performance. The fabricated sustainable LSO@f-HNT electrocatalyst exhibits outstanding selectivity and linear range (0.01–480 μM) with a detection limit of 2.1 nM and produces good recovery results (97.8–99.68%) under the optimized measurement conditions. This study discusses the design of the LSO@f-HNT composite and its application as an electrode material for the sensitive and focused electrochemical detection of hazardous Metol. This research demonstrates that LSO and f-HNT (LSO@f-HNT) is an excellent electrode material for electrochemical detection of Metol in real-world samples.