A strategy of electrochemical simultaneous detection of acetaminophen and levofloxacin in water based on g-C3N4 nanosheet-doped graphene oxide

Abstract

During environmental testing, it is an urgent problem for scientists to develop and design a new type of electrochemical sensor electrode with distinguished stability, high activity and cost-effectiveness. In our research, a novel and simple electroanalytical method for the simultaneous determination of acetaminophen (AC) and levofloxacin (LEV) in environmental water was proposed based on an ultrathin graphitic carbon nitride nanosheet-doped graphene oxide (CNNS/GO). The physicochemical properties of as-synthesized nanocomposite materials were characterized in detail by various spectroscopic and analytical techniques. Meanwhile, the electrochemical characterisation of the modified GCE was carried out by cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). The CNNS/GO electrochemical ultra-sensitive strategy was established for detecting AC and LEV in linear concentration ranges of 5 × 10⁻⁷–3.0 × 10⁻⁵ and 5 × 10⁻⁷–1.5 × 10⁻⁵ mol L⁻¹ with low detection limits of 1.7 × 10⁻⁸ and 7.9 × 10⁻⁸ mol L⁻¹ toward AC and LEV, respectively. The sensor was provided with lower cost, excellent accuracy, satisfactory sensitivity and simple fabrication. The fabricated electrochemical sensor was further successfully expanded to determine AC and LEV in river water samples with recoveries between 95.6% and 111.8% and good correspondence with the HPLC method.