Cerium(IV) oxide decorated on reduced graphene oxide, a selective and sensitive electrochemical sensor for fenitrothion determination

Fenitrothion is one of the common organophosphorus pesticides that is widely employed for insect control in agriculture. Here, cerium oxide@reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite (CeO2/rGO) was successfully prepared to apply as an efficient mediator for electrochemical detection of fenitrothion. The CeO2/rGO nanocomposite was characterized by various analytical methods including FT-IR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy and electrochemical techniques. Also, the morphology and characteristic of CeO2/rGO were monitored using microscopic images of transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. CeO2/rGO was employed to modify glassy carbon electrode (GCE) and resulting data was compared to rGO-GCE and unmodified GCE and some other reported sensors in literature. The electrochemical studies represented that CeO2/rGO improved the GCE by decreasing the working potentials to more acceptable one (around 0.00 V vs. Ag/AgCI) with the observable increases in the voltammetric responses towards fenitrothion concentration. The quantitative data, were obtained using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) with a linear range of 0.025-2.00 mu mol L-1 fenitrothion. Moreover, its detection limit was obtained as 3.0 nmol L-1 fenitrothion. Finally, CeO2/rGO-GCE represented high selective sensing towards fenitrothion in the presence of common interference species present in real well water and spring water samples provided from agricultural environment. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.