Spinel Nanoparticles ZnCo2O4 as High Performance Electrocatalyst for Electrochemical Sensing Antibiotic Chloramphenicol

Abstract

<p>In this study, ZnCo<sub>2</sub>O<sub>4</sub> nanoparticles were synthesized via the coprecipitation method using different annealing temperatures from 200°C to 800°C. By varying the treatment temperature, the morphology changed from amorphous to tetragonal, and finally to polygonal particles. As temperature increased, the sizes of the nanoparticles also changed from 5 nm at 200°C to approximately 500 nm at 800°C. The fabricated material was used to modify the working electrode of a screen-printed carbon electrode (SPE), which was subsequently used to survey the detection performance of the antibiotic, chloramphenicol (CAP). The electrochemical results revealed that the material exhibits a good response to CAP. Further, the sample that annealed at 600°C displayed the best performance, with a linear range of 1–300 μM, and a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.15 μM. The sensor modified with ZnCo<sub>2</sub>O<sub>4</sub> also exhibited the potential for utilitarian application when the recovery in a real sample was above 97%.</p>