Electrochemical Sensor for Organophosphate Pesticides and Nerve Agents Using Zirconia Nanoparticles as Selective Sorbents

• Published in: Analytical chemistry (Washington) Vol. 77; no. 18; pp. 5894 - 5901
• Main Authors: Liu, Guodong, Lin, Yuehe
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 15.09.2005; American Chemical Society (ACS)
• Subjects: Analytical chemistry; Biological & chemical weapons; Biopesticides; Chemistry; Electrochemical methods; Electrochemistry; Electrodes; Exact sciences and technology; General, instrumentation; Gold - chemistry; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Insecticides - chemistry; Insecticides - pharmacology; Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; Molecular Structure; Nanoparticles; Nanoparticles - chemistry; Neurons - drug effects; Organophosphorus Compounds - chemistry; Organophosphorus Compounds - pharmacology; Sorbents; Zirconium - chemistry; Performance evaluation; Parathion; Electrochemical method; Nanoparticle; Anodic stripping voltammetry; Ultratrace compound; Pesticides; Chemical sensor; Electrochemical detector; Chemical enrichment; Sorption; Cyclic voltammetry; Zirconia; Biological compound; Adsorption; Detection limit; Reaction medium; Organophosphorus compounds; Square wave
• ISSN: 0003-2700; 1520-6882
• DOI: 10.1021/ac050791t

An electrochemical sensor for detection of organophosphate (OP) pesticides and nerve agents using zirconia (ZrO2) nanoparticles as selective sorbents is presented. Zirconia nanoparticles were electrodynamically deposited onto the polycrystalline gold electrode by cyclic voltammetry. Because of the strong affinity of zirconia for the phosphoric group, nitroaromatic OPs strongly bind to the ZrO2 nanoparticle surface. The electrochemical characterization and anodic stripping voltammetric performance of bound OPs were evaluated using cyclic voltammetric and square-wave voltammetric (SWV) analysis. SWV was used to monitor the amount of bound OPs and provide simple, fast, and facile quantitative methods for nitroaromatic OP compounds. The sensor surface can be regenerated by successively running SWV scanning. Operational parameters, including the amount of nanoparticles, adsorption time, and pH of the reaction medium have been optimized. The stripping voltammetric response is highly linear over the 5−100 ng/mL (ppb) methyl parathion range examined (2-min adsorption), with a detection limit of 3 ng/mL and good precision (RSD = 5.3%, n = 10). The detection limit was improved to 1 ng/mL by using 10-min adsorption time. The promising stripping voltammetric performances open new opportunities for fast, simple, and sensitive analysis of OPs in environmental and biological samples. These findings can lead to a widespread use of electrochemical sensors to detect OP contaminates.