Abstract
Due to its deleterious effects on health, development of new methods for detection and removal of pesticide residues in primary and derived agricultural products is a research topic of great importance. Among them, imazalil (IMZ) is a widely used post‐harvest fungicide with good performances in general, and is particularly applied to prevent green mold in citrus fruits. In this work, a composite film for the impedimetric sensing of IMZ built from metal‐organic framework nanocrystallites homogeneously distributed on a conductive poly(3,4‐ethylene dioxythiophene) (PEDOT) layer is presented. The as‐synthetized thin films are produced via spin‐coating over poly(ethylene terephtalate (PET) substrate following a straightforward, cost‐effective, single‐step procedure. By means of impedance spectroscopy, electric transport properties of the films are studied, and high sensitivity towards IMZ concentration in the range of 15 ppb to 1 ppm is demonstrated (featuring 1.6 and 4.2 ppb limit of detection, when using signal modulus and phase, respectively). The sensing platform hereby presented could be used for the construction of portable, miniaturized, and ultrasensitive devices, suitable for pesticide detection in food, wastewater effluents, or the assessment of drinking‐water quality.
Highlights
Fruits and vegetables are essential components of the human diet around the world them, imazalil (IMZ) is a widely used post-harvest fungicide with good providing important vitamins and nutriperformances in general, and is applied to prevent green mold in citrus fruits
We introduce a novel strategy towards IMZ impedimetric sensing in aqueous environments by using label-free Material from the Institute Lavoisier (MIL)-101-NH2(Cr)@PEDOT composites
We have synthetized metal–organic frameworks (MOFs)@PEDOT composite films through a chemical-oxidative polymerization and spin coating over low-cost poly-ethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates without the use of primers
Summary
Fruits and vegetables are essential components of the human diet around the world them, imazalil (IMZ) is a widely used post-harvest fungicide with good providing important vitamins and nutriperformances in general, and is applied to prevent green mold in citrus fruits. Due to the above discussed interesting features and to recent developments which allow avoiding the use of highly corrosive and toxic hydrofluoric acid in the synthesis procedure,[52] MIL-101-NH2(Cr) was selected for IMZ adsorbent in the hereby proposed electrochemical sensing application.[53,54]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
