2D Sustainable Electrocatalyst for Sulfamethazine Identification (original) (raw)

In the scientific community, developing a non-enzymatic detection tool for highly reliable and sensitive identification of the targeted biomolecules is challenging. Sulfamethazine (SMZ), a bacterial inhibitor frequently used as an antibacterial medicine, can cause antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in humans if taken in excess. Hence, there is a need for a reliable and rapid sensor that can detect SMZ in food and aquatic environments. The goal of this study aims to develop a novel, inexpensive 2D/ 2D hexagonal boron nitride/protonated carbon nitride (h-BN/ PCN) nanohybrid that can function as an electrocatalyst for SMZ sensing. The as-synthesized material's crystalline, structural, chemical, and self-assembly properties were thoroughly characterized by XRD, HR-TEM, XPS, HR-SEM, FT-IR, and ZETA potential and electrochemical sensing capacity of the suggested electrodes was optimized using CV, EIS, DPV, and it curve techniques. The above nanohybrid of h-BN/PCN-modified GCE exhibits improved non-enzymatic sulfamethazine sensing behaviour, with a response time of less than 1.83 s, a sensitivity of 1.80 μA μM À 1 cm À 2 , a detection limit of 0.00298 μM, and a range of 10 nM to 200 μM. The electrochemical analysis proves that the conductivity of h-BN has significantly improved after assembling PCN due to the large surface area with active surface sites and the synergistic effect. Notably, our constructed sensor demonstrated outstanding selectivity over a range of probable interferents, and electrochemical studies indicate that the suggested sensor has improved functional durability, rapid response, impartial repeatability, and reproducibility. Furthermore, the feasibility of an h-BN/PCN-modified sensor to detect the presence of SMZ in food samples consumed by humans has been successfully tested with high recovery percentages.