Sonochemical-assisted synthesis of zinc vanadate microstructure for electrochemical determination of metronidazole

Abstract

In this work, zinc vanadate microstructure (Zn3(VO4)2, ZnV MS) was successfully synthesized via the sonochemical method for the determination of metronidazole (MTZ). The crystalline structure, surface morphology, and chemical composition of the prepared ZnV MS were characterized by analytical techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses. The electro-kinetic properties of ZnV MS were tested using both anodic and cathodic redox couple. Furthermore, their electroanalytical behavior was successfully investigated using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) methods. The ZnV MS displayed excellent electrocatalytic performance in the presence of MTZ than that of an unmodified electrode. Under the optimized conditions, the ZnV MS-fabricated electrode demonstrated a broad linear range from 0.05 to 1303 µM with the low detection limit of 0.009 µM (S/N = 3) and an obtained sensitivity of 0.445 µA µM–1 cm–2. Additionally, the proposed electrode was successfully applied in the detection of MTZ in milk samples with a recovery range of 92–98%.