Facile synthesis of ultrathin NiSnO3 nanoparticles for enhanced electrochemical detection of an antibiotic drug in water bodies and biological samples

Abstract

The highly sensitive real-time detection of antibiotic drugs (nitrofurantoin; NFT) has drawn significant research attention due to the extensive use of antibiotics, which may cause serious threats to environment as well as living things. In this work, a novel nickel stannite (NiSnO₃; NSO) nanoparticles were developed via a facile sonochemical synthetic route and used as a synergistic electrocatalyst for the electrochemical determination of NFT for the first time. The structure of the as-prepared material was scrutinized by various physicochemical techniques. The impedance analysis proves that the ionic conductivity of NSO was significantly improved by the insertion of nickel ions into the tin oxide lattice. The resultant electrocatalyst exhibits a superior electrocatalytic behavior toward NFT with a low detection limit (3 nM), broad linearity (6.6 nM–0.5 μM and 0.5–466.6 μM) and rapid response (2 s) due to the increased number of active sites and the synergistic effect of NSO. In addition, the NSO nanoparticles showed excellent selectivity over the various possible interferents, good operational stability, adequate reproducibility and repeatability towards NFT detection. Besides, the practical feasibility of developed NFT sensor based on NSO was successfully investigated by applying the sensor for the monitoring of NFT in real water and biological samples with acceptable results. Hence, the developed NSO nanoparticles could serve as an auspicious electrode modifier in the field of electrochemical sensors.