Cellulose fabricated pencil graphite sensor for the quantification of hazardous herbicide atrazine

Electrochemical behavior of Atrazine (ATZ) was investigated at Cellulose (CLs) fabricated Pencil Graphite Electrode (CLs/PGE) novel sensor in Britton-Robinson buffer at pH 4.3. The developed sensor was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-Ray diffraction (XRD) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The electrochemical measurements were carried out using square wave (SW) and cyclic voltammetry (CV). The modified sensor exhibited an excellent catalytic response towards the reduction of ATZ with a well-defined reduction peak at 880 mV. The modified sensor exhibited linear calibration curve for ATZ over a concentration range of 5.0 ng/mL to 320 ng/mL with detection limit of 0.008 ng/mL. The developed sensor could detect ATZ efficiently without any interference from the common metabolites. The voltammetric procedure was applied successfully to real samples analysis with high sensitivity, good selectivity and reproducibility which make it suitable for other environmental sample analyses. The fabricated sensor demonstrated an excellent performance for quantification of ATZ with accuracy of 3.00% relative standard deviation (RSD). The suggested technique has been effectively applied for ATZ detection in drinking water with a recovery from 98.8% to 99.1%. For the first time cellulose based pencil graphite novel sensor has been developed for the voltammetric quantification of herbicide ATZ with higher sensitivity.