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Electrochemical activation of oxygen vacancy-rich TiO2@MXene as high-performance electrochemical sensing platform for detecting imidacloprid in fruits and vegetables

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Abstract

Heterostructured TiO2@MXene rich in oxygen vacancies defects (VO-TiO2@MXene) has been developed to construct an electrochemical sensing platform for imidacloprid (IMI) determination. For the material design, TiO2 nanoparticles were firstly in situ grown on MXene and used as a scaffolding to prevent the stack of MXene nanosheets. The obtained TiO2@MXene heterostructure displays excellent layered structure and large specific surface area. After that, electrochemical activation is utilized to treat TiO2@MXene, which greatly increases the concentration of surface oxygen vacancies (VOs), thereby remarkably enhancing the conductivity and adsorption capacity of the composite. Accordingly, the prepared VO-TiO2@MXene displays excellent electrocatalytic activity toward the reduction of IMI. Under optimum conditions, cyclic voltammetry and linear sweep voltammetry techniques were utilized to investigate the electrochemical behavior of IMI at the VO-TiO2@MXene/GCE. The proposed sensor based on VO-TiO2@MXene presents an obvious reduction peak at -1.05 V(vs. Hg|Hg2Cl2) with two linear ranges from 0.07 - 10.0 μM and 10.0 - 70.0 μM with a detection limit of 23.3 nM (S/N= 3). Furthermore, the sensor provides a reliable result for detecting IMI in fruit and vegetable samples with a recovery of 97.9-103% and RSD≤ 4.3%.

Graphical abstract

A sensitive electrochemical sensing platform was reported for imidacloprid (IMI) determination based on heterostructured TiO2@MXene rich in oxygen vacancy defects.

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Funding

This work is funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22064010 and 51862014), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province (20212BAB 203019 and 20202ACBL213009), Natural Science Foundation of Nanchang City (No. 2018CXTD014), the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (2022JJ30419 and 2022JJ30418), and the Research Foundation of Education Bureau of Hunan Province (19B384).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Crop Physiology, Ecology and Genetic Breeding, Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Chemical Utilization of Plant Resources of Nanchang, College of Chemistry and Materials, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, 330045, China

    Jing Yang, Changxi Deng, Wei Zhong, Guanwei Peng, Jin Zou, Yan Lu, Yansha Gao, Mingfang Li & Limin Lu

  2. Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Treatment Functional Materials, Hunan Province Engineering Research Center of Electroplating Wastewater Reuse Technology, College of Chemistry and Materials Engineering, Hunan University of Arts and Science, Changde, 415000, China

    Jing Yang & Songbai Zhang

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  1. Jing Yang
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  3. Wei Zhong
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Correspondence to Yansha Gao, Songbai Zhang or Limin Lu.

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Yang, J., Deng, C., Zhong, W. et al. Electrochemical activation of oxygen vacancy-rich TiO2@MXene as high-performance electrochemical sensing platform for detecting imidacloprid in fruits and vegetables. Microchim Acta 190, 146 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-023-05734-x

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