1. Design and Fabrication of Yttrium Ferrite Garnet-Embedded Graphitic Carbon Nitride: A Sensitive Electrocatalyst for Smartphone-Enabled Point-of-Care Pesticide (Mesotrione) Analysis in Food Samples
- Author
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Shen-Ming Chen, Walaa Khushaim, Sathishkumar Chinnapaiyan, Jose Ilton de Oliveira Filho, Umamaheswari Rajaji, Veerappan Mani, and Mani Govindasamy
- Subjects
Materials science ,Point-of-Care Systems ,Yttrium iron garnet ,chemistry.chemical_element ,Food Contamination ,Electrocatalyst ,Ferric Compounds ,law.invention ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Microscopy, Electron, Transmission ,X-Ray Diffraction ,law ,Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared ,Yttrium ,General Materials Science ,Calcination ,Pesticides ,Nitrogen Compounds ,Cyclohexanones ,Graphitic carbon nitride ,Reproducibility of Results ,Electrochemical Techniques ,Potentiostat ,chemistry ,Chemical engineering ,Electrode ,Ferrite (magnet) ,Graphite ,Smartphone - Abstract
As the use of pesticides in agriculture is increasing at an alarming rate, food contamination by pesticide residues is becoming a huge global problem. It is essential to develop a sensitive and user-friendly sensor device to quantify trace levels of pesticide and herbicide residues in food samples. Herein, we report an electrocatalyst made up of yttrium iron garnet (Y3Fe5O12; YIG) and graphitic carbon nitride (GCN) to attain picomolar-level detection sensitivity for mesotrione (MTO), which is a widely used herbicide in agriculture. First, YIG was prepared by a hydrothermal route; then, it was loaded on GCN sheets via a calcination method. The surface structures, composition, crystallinity, and interfacial and electrocatalytic properties of the YIG and YIG/GCN were analyzed. As the YIG/GCN displayed better surface and catalytic properties than YIG, YIG/GCN was modified on a screen-printed carbon electrode to fabricate a sensor for MTO. The YIG/GCN-modified electrode displayed a detection limit of 950 pM for MTO. The method was demonstrated in (spiked) fruits and vegetables. Then, the modified electrode was integrated with a miniaturized potentiostat called KAUSTat, which can be operated wirelessly by a smartphone. A first smartphone-based portable sensor was demonstrated for MTO that is suitable for use in nonlaboratory settings.
- Published
- 2021