N-doped porous molybdenum carbide nanoflowers: A novel sensing platform for organophosphorus pesticides detecting

Molybdenum carbide (Mo 2 C) doping nitrogen nanoparticles (Mo 2 C/NCS) were synthesized by a facile and friendly method. Owing to the high surface area and structural tunability, Mo 2 C/NCS possesses the excellent electron conduction channels and exposes numerous active sites. Based on these characteristics, Mo 2 C/NCS was adopted to fabricate glassy carbon electrodes to construct acetylcholinesterase (AChE) biosensors for detecting organophosphorus pesticides (OPs). The prepared biosensors exhibited wide linear ranges from 1.0 × 10 −14 to 1.0 × 10 −6 M with the detection limit of 4.47 × 10 −15 M for malathion and 1.0 × 10 −13 to 1.0 × 10 −5 M with a limit of detection of 2.57 × 10 −14 M for methyl paraoxon. The AChE biosensor also displayed the outstanding stability and selectivity. The prepared AChE biosensor was also employed to detect OPs in cabbage and apple samples with high accuracies and satisfactory recoveries. Therefore, this study manifested a prominent transition metal carbides nanomaterial for biosensors in detecting OPs and provided a way for other enzyme-based biosensors.