Nanostructured β‐tricalcium Phosphate (Ca3(PO4)2 Based Electrochemical Sensor for Detection of Methyl Parathion and Mercury (II) Ions

Narayanan Sudhan,Chinnathambi Sekar

doi:10.3389/fnano.2021.632652

Abstract

In this work, we have fabricated a new electrochemical sensor based on β‐tricalcium phosphate (Ca3(PO4)2) nanoparticles (NPs) modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) for the selective nonenzymatic determination of methyl parathion and mercury (II) ions independently. β‐tricalcium phosphate (β‐TCP) NPs were prepared by chemical precipitation method and structural and morphological properties were investigated by XRD, FTIR, and SEM. The electrochemical behavior of MP and mercury (Hg2+) ions were investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and square wave voltammetry (SWV) techniques using β‐TCP/GCE. The modified electrode exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity towards both the MP and Hg over a wide linear range from 0.15 to 141 μM and 1–381 µM with the lowest detection limits of 88 and 136.4 nM respectively. The sensor has high selectivity towards MP and Hg in the presence of major interfering compounds such as 3-nitrophenol, 4-nitrophenol, 4-aminophenol, catechol, hydroquinone and heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and arsenic. Applicability of the fabricated sensor for detection of MP and Hg (II) ions has been tested in tap water by standard addition method.

Highlights

Organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) are extensively used as insecticides in the field of agriculture to protect crops, seeds and to get high yield with high quality (Mulchandani et al, 2001; Obare et al, 2010)
A novel and simple strategy for the sensitive detection of methyl parathion and heavy metal mercury individually using the ßTCP/glassy carbon electrode (GCE) is presented in this paper for the first time
The results confirm that in the case of unmodified bare GCE, the voltammograms of both Methyl parathion (MP) and mercury (II) ion exhibit just a small peak current, whereas the peak current is significantly enhanced on ß-TCP/GCE

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) are extensively used as insecticides in the field of agriculture to protect crops, seeds and to get high yield with high quality (Mulchandani et al, 2001; Obare et al, 2010). In order to overcome these problems, novel enzyme free sensor devices for methyl parathion detection such as MWCNTs–PAAM) based composite (Zeng et al, 2012), carboxylic acid functionalized single walled carbon nanotubes-cyclodextrin (f-SWCNTs-CD) (Yao et al, 2014), mono-6-thio-cyclodextrin–gold nanoparticles–single walled carbon nanotubes SHCD/AuNPs/SWCNTs (Fu et al, 2015), gadolinium hexacyano ferrate–graphene nanosheets (GdHCF/ GNs) (Li et al, 2014) zirconia nanoparticles (ZrO2NPs) (Parham and Rahbar, 2010) have been developed Heavy metal ions such as cadmium, lead, arsenic, mercury are major contributors to environmental pollution, albeit in very low concentrations, because of their undesirable involvement in many natural and industrial applications. The fabricated electrode was employed for determination of MP and mercury (II) ions in tap-water samples

MATERIALS AND METHODS

AND DISCUSSION

Findings

CONCLUSION