Hydrothermal synthesis of CeO₂ nanoparticles and its application in electrochemical detection of nitrofurantoin antibiotics

¹ Department of Biology, College of Science, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU) Riyadh-11623, Saudi Arabia
² Department of Biology, College of Sciences, Jazan University - P.O. Box 2079, Jazan 45142, Saudi Arabia
³ Department of Physics, College of Science, Jazan University - P.O. Box. 114, Jazan 45142, Saudi Arabia
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, Jazan University - P.O. Box. 706, Jazan 45142, Saudi Arabia

^(a) imranchaudhary0@gmail.com (corresponding author)

Received: 23 January 2022
Accepted: 22 March 2022

Abstract

In recent years, antibiotics have been considered emerging pollutants due to their continuous input and their persistence in the aquatic ecosystem, even at low concentrations. The present work focuses on the successful hydrothermal synthesis and characterization of CeO₂ nanoparticles for the electrochemical detection of nitrofurantoin (NFT) antibiotic. Their physicochemical properties were studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The average particle size and the energy bandgap of CeO₂ nanoparticles were found to be 9.59 nm and 3.3 eV, respectively. Furthermore, electrochemical analysis showed that the developed CeO₂ -based electrode showed improved electrocatalytic activity towards the oxidation of nitrofurantoin (NFT) compared to the bare electrode. The limit of detection (LOD) was obtained as 7.81 μM from the calibration curve. Hence, these results corroborate that the CeO₂ nanoparticles modified electrode can serve as a novel NFT electrocatalyst.