Fabrication of peanut shell-derived porous carbon/zirconium dioxide/Nafion nanocomposite for methyl parathion electrochemical determination

We developed a facile and easy-to-use preparation technique to fabricate peanut shell-derived porous carbon (PSPC) with highly electroactive area and interconnected porous carbon structure. The introduction of zirconium dioxide (ZrO2) nanoparticles into the microporous structure of PSPC results in the formation of PSPC@ZrO2 composite, which was used as electrode sensitiser in the presence of Nafion membrane to modify the surface of glass carbon electrode (GCE) to successfully prepare the PSPC/ZrO2/Nafion/GCE sensor. PSPC has excellent conductivity and abundant electroactive region, which effectively facilitates electron transfer between the sensing interface and electrolyte. The biocompatible ZrO2 recognise the phosphate group of methyl parathion (MP), which enables the effective enrichment of MP. Meanwhile, the presence of Nafion enhanced the stability of the sensing electrode surface. The PSPC/ZrO2/Nafion/GCE sensor achieves highly sensitive detection of MP in the linear range of 0.05–10 μM (Limit of detection: 15.7 nM). The prepared sensor has favourable practicality for MP detection in real samples.