Synthesis and characterization of 3D flower-like nickel oxide entrapped on boron doped carbon nitride nanocomposite: An efficient catalyst for the electrochemical detection of nitrofurantoin

It is a great challenge to design and develop a new kind of cost-effective electrode with excellent activity and high stability for the electrochemical sensors. In this presented research, an eco-friendly sonochemical route was utilized to synthesize the flower-like nickel oxide entrapped on boron doped carbon nitride (NiO/BCN) nanocomposite for the application towards electrochemical detection of nitrofurantoin (NFT). The as-synthesized NiO/BCN nanocomposite was detailedly characterized by FESEM, TEM, elemental mapping, EDX, XRD and FT-IR analysis. The electrochemical studies presented that the new sensing probe using the NiO/BCN modified electrode possesses rapid mass transport, superior electrocatalytic activity and high electrical conductivity for the detection of NFT. Furthermore, the NiO/BCN nanocomposite on a glassy carbon electrode displayed a wide dynamic linear response range (0.05-230 mu M), very low detection limit (10 nM) and good sensitivity (1.15 mu A mu M-1 cm(2)) with excellent selectivity. The proposed electrochemical sensor has been successfully applied to the determination of NFT in biological samples with satisfactory results.