One-pot bioinspired synthesis of PbO/CuO/FeO trimetallic oxide nanocomposite using Vitis vinifera fruit juice for highly sensitive electrochemical detection of 4-Nitrotoluene

Abstract

The determination of explosive nitroaromatic chemicals has prompted concerns about human safety around the world. In this work, we demonstrate an electrochemical sensor based on trimetallic oxide nanocomposites modified screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) for the detection of nitroaromatic compounds. Trimetallic oxide nanocomposites are multiphase materials containing ternary metal oxides. Because of their high specific surface area, superior electron transport capabilities, and favourable catalytic behaviour, they are frequently employed as antibacterial materials, catalysts, and sensors. In order to combat the problems associated with high manufacturing costs, low selectivity, and low sensitivity of conventional sensors, this paper reports on the construction of an electrochemical sensor for 4-nitrotoluene (4-NT) using a trimetallic oxide nano-sensor. The nano-sensor is composed of transition metal oxides copper and iron combined with post-transition lead metal oxide. In this study, we prepared a PbO/CuO/FeO TMO NCs sample with different individual metal oxides synthesized by a green reduction method using Vitis vinifera fruit juice. SEM was used to observe and validate structural and morphological variations brought on by various metal compositions. The four bio-synthesized materials comprise dispersed multiphase matrices containing varying shapes of nanoparticles with different morphologies. The elemental and phase arrangements of the synthesized samples were investigated employing UV, FT-IR, XRD, and EDAX approaches. The findings of the electrochemical measurements indicate that the SPCE modified with PbO/CuO/FeO TMO NCs has enhanced sensing capabilities over CuO, FeO, and PbO NPs for 4-NT; the limit of detection is 4.512 nM and sensitivity is −0.531 μA nM−1 for the developed sensor. Notably, recovery values (99.2–101.7 %) in water samples showed that evaluating interfering species from different contaminants had no effect on the sensing of 4-NT. All of these findings show that the newly developed sensor performs well in terms of reproducibility, selectivity, and sensitivity for the detection of 4-NT