In-situ construction of ternary metal oxide heterostructures Mn@LaZrO: A novel multi-functional nanocatalyst for detecting environmental hazardous 4-nitroaniline

Abstract

The level of environmental pollutants is kept increasing as the continued sources of waste discharges into the ecosystem. The improper discharge of industrial waste products, widely used pesticides in agriculture, and pharmaceutical discharges are the major source of this uplift. Nitro aromatics are one among the major intermediates for producing dyes, pesticides, and fungicides. Monitoring and assessing these environmental pollutants is more important to reduce the consequences experienced by human and aquatic life. Thus, the dual-sensing platform was developed for analyzing the 4-nitroaniline (4-NA) derivative via electrochemical and UV–vis sensing analysis. Inspired by the unique properties of nanomaterials trimetallic oxides as manganese with lanthanum zirconium oxide (Mn@LaZrO) were synthesized. The physicochemical features were determined with different analytical techniques. The Mn@LaZrO was found with pure crystalline nature and nanospheres at nanoplates were identified. The fabricated electrode with Mn@LaZrO was exposed to both the sensing analysis (UV and electrochemical) with 0.049 µM −1443.78 µM and 0.49 µM-159.61 µM linear ranges of 4-NA addition. The higher surface area with more reactive active sites triggered the faster electron transfer rate in 4-NA sensing. The Mn@LaZrO/GCE showed lowered resistance with the Rct value of 117.75 Ω determining the higher electrocatalytic activity of the composite. The LOD was obtained to be 0.003 µM and 0.041 µM. The highly influential factors such as selectivity, repeatability, reproducibility, and stability parameters depicted excellent performances. Thus, the dual-functional Mn@LaZrO executes excellent performances with its unique features.