Zirconium metal organic framework based opto-electrochemical sensor for nitrofurazone detection

The manuscript presents a zirconium metal-organic framework (Zr-MOF or UiO-66-NH2) based efficient sensing system to detect nitrofurazone (NFZ) antibiotic, by employing electrochemical-optical dual detection technique. The Zr-MOF was synthesized by solvothermal method and the success of synthesis was confirmed by using analytical techniques of characterization. For electrochemical determination of NFZ, electrodeposited gold nanoparticles supported zirconium metal-organic framework modified screen-printed electrode (AuNPs/UiO-66-NH2/SPCE) was used. As prepared electrochemical sensing platform showed a wide linear concentration range of 1x10(-8) to 5x10(-5) mol/L for NFZ. For fluorometric measurements, synthesized UiO-66-NH2 was employed under optimized conditions, and a turn-off behavior of NFZ towards UiO-66-NH2 was observed from a range of concentration 1x10(-8) to 4.5x10(-5) mol/L of NFZ. The proposed opto-electrochemical sensor attained low detection limit in nM range, showed selective behavior in presence of other antibiotics, and gave a reproducible signal with the RSD value less than 2.5% (n = 5). The prepared sensor was tested to detect NFZ in lake water samples and the results indicated good percentage recovery in the range 97.70-98.40 and 93.30-97.84%, for electrochemical and optical methods, respectively.

Automated summary

This study presents an efficient sensing system based on a zirconium metal-organic framework (Zr-MOF or UiO-66-NH2) for the detection of nitrofurazone (NFZ) antibiotic using electrochemical-optical dual detection technique. The sensor exhibited a low detection limit in the nanomolar range, selective behavior towards NFZ in the presence of other antibiotics, and good recovery in lake water samples.