In-situ pyrolytic processed zinc stannate incorporated graphitic carbon nitride nanocomposite for selective and sensitive electrochemical determination of nitrobenzene

In this study describes the in-situ pyrolytic synthesis of zinc stannate-graphitic carbon nitride (ZSO-gCN) nanocomposite material and its potential application in electrochemical sensing of nitrobenzene. The ZSO-gCN nanocomposite was characterized by X-ray diffraction, fourier transform infra-red, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy and elemental mapping to determine the crystalline, morphology, and functionalities of the resultant nanocomposite material. The ZSO-gCN was used to modify the glassy carbon electrode (GCE) surface, and investigated for electrochemical determination of nitrobenzene. The ZSO-gCN modified GCE showed good electrocatalytic activity towards nitrobenzene than other modified electrodes. The ZSO-gCN/GCE having the electron transfer rate constant (k(s) = 0.746 s(-1)) and charge transfer coefficient (alpha = 1.171) towards electroanalysis of nitrobenzene. Linear sweep voltammetric (LSV) technique exhibits cathodic peak current increases in linearly with increasing nitrobenzene content in the range of 30-100 mu M. The lowest detection limit (LoD) and sensitivity were found to be 2.2 mu M (S/N = 3) and 0.05857 mu A mu M-1 cm(-2), respectively. The inorganic species and organic substances such as Ca2+, K+ and 4-nitrophenol, 1-chloro,2,4-dinitrobenzene, 1-bromo,2-nitrobenzene, 1-iodo,2-nitrobenzene were showed negligible interference effect with nitrobenzene detection and good sensitivity for monitoring nitrobenzene content in real samples were acquired. This recently produced ZSO-gCN nanocomposite would be a prospective material for electrochemical based sensor applications.