Rational Design and Interlayer Effect of Dysprosium-Stannate Nanoplatelets Incorporated Graphene Oxide: A Versatile and Competent Electrocatalyst for Toxic Carbamate Pesticide Detection in Vegetables

In modern farming, pesticides are extensively used to deliver high-yield harvests with no concern about the amount of toxicity involved in the agriculture process. The continuous usage of pesticides also causes severe health issues for human health. Thus, promoting a rapid and accurate method for ultrasensitive and low-level detection of toxic pesticides is essential in real food samples to avoid serious health issues. Herein, we successfully synthesized graphene oxide (GO) incorporated with dysprosium stannate nanoplatelets (Dy2Sn2O7) through a facile coprecipitation method followed by ultrasonication, which is used for the electrochemical detection of carbofuran (CF) in vegetable samples. The unique structural properties of Dy2Sn2O7/GO were successfully characterized by various analytical and spectroscopic techniques. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements revealed overall elevated electrochemical behavior of the Dy2Sn2O7/GO composite. Additionally, the electrochemical performance of Dy2Sn2O7/GO analyzed by cyclic voltammetry (CV) showed superior electrocatalytic activity toward the detection of CF compared with bare and other composite electrodes due to fast electron transfer behavior and interlayer effect of Dy2Sn2O7 NPs and GO. Furthermore, differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) analysis of Dy2Sn2O7/GO revealed the low-level detection limit of CF 14.8 nM with the linear concentration range of 0.05-124.65 mu M and a sensitivity of 2.632 mu A mu M-1 cm(-2). Indeed, the real-time analysis of CF at Dy2Sn2O7/GO retained an adequate recovery level in vegetable samples that are desirable for practical applications and, thus, can generate the diminution of CF in the environmental contamination. Given the acceptable recovery level of CF, the Dy2Sn2O7/GO is a competent electrocatalyst for detecting toxic pesticides in real samples to avoid health issues.