Synthesis and characterization of pyrochlore-type lanthanum cerate nanoparticles: Electrochemical determination of antibiotic drug sulfadiazine in biological and environmental samples

Abstract

In recent eras, antibiotic drugs are essential for humans and the veterinary health system. However, the improper discarding of their residues are simply contaminating the food products and environmental samples. Here, pyrochlore-type lanthanum cerate nanoparticles (LaCe NPs) were prepared through a simple co-precipitation route and used as effective electrocatalyst for the detection of antibiotic drug sulfadiazine (SDZ). The structural investigations of prepared material were carried out using XRD, FT-IR, XPS, SEM, HR-TEM, and EDX along with Elemental mapping analysis, which confirm the good formation of pyrochlore type LaCe in the form of particle-like morphology with well-crystalline nature. A nanosized LaCe revealed superior electrochemical activity towards SDZ owing to the large surface area, facilitating mass and ionic transport and chemical stability phenomena. The as-prepared LaCe NPs demonstrated an excellent electrochemical performance towards SDZ determination with a low LOD (50 nM), a wide dynamic range of 0.04–1525 μM, and an acceptable sensitivity of 1.92 μA μM−1 cm−2. Furthermore, the LaCe NPs/GCE revealed excellent reproducibility, storage stability, and selectivity parameters. Additionally, the proposed sensor achieves a good SDZ recovery in milk and human urine samples. The results strongly suggest that the rare earth metal oxide of lanthanum cerate is an efficient catalyst for portable detection of SDZ.