Electrochemical behaviour of cellulose/reduced graphene oxide/carbon fiber paper electrodes towards the highly sensitive detection of amitrole

Abstract

Amitrole is a non-selective triazole herbicide that is widespread used to control a variety of weeds in agriculture, but it may pollute the environment and do harm to organisms. Thus, it is of critical significance to enlist a low-cost, sensitive, stable and renewable method to detect amitrole. In this paper, electrochemical experiments were carried out using carbon fibers/reduced graphene oxide/cellulose paper electrodes, which demonstrated good electrocatalytic performance for amitrole detection. The electrochemical process of amitrole on the surface of the reduced paper electrode was a quasi-reversible reaction controlled by diffusion. Cyclic voltammetry and the amperometric i–t curve method were used for amitrole determination at a micro molar level and higher-concentration range with the following characteristics: linear range 5 × 10⁻⁶ mol L⁻¹ to 3 × 10⁻⁵ mol L⁻¹, detection limit 2.44 × 10⁻⁷ mol L⁻¹. In addition, the relative standard deviation of repeatability is 3.74% and of stability is 4.68%. The reduced paper electrode with high sensitivity, low detection limit, good stability and repeatability provides novel ideas for on-site amitrole detection in food and agriculture.