ZnZrO 2 -adorned graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) on a laser-induced graphene electrode as an electrochemical sensor for the detection of ractopamine in meat samples

• Published in: New journal of chemistry 2024-11, Vol.48 (44), p.18931-18942
• Main Authors: Ganapathi Raman, R., Muhammed Shameem, M., Kavitha, P., Sankar, C., Kalaivani, S. R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1144-0546; 1369-9261
• DOI: 10.1039/D4NJ03837A

Ractopamine (RA) is a phenolic substance widely used as an animal food additive. However, excessive RA use can have adverse effects on human health. Therefore, the development of a sensor for accurate RA detection is crucial. In this study, a flexible and economical laser-induced graphene (LIG) sensor was fabricated by uniformly drop casting ZnZrO 2 @g-C 3 N 4 NPs on the LIG surface. Further, the fabricated electrochemical sensor was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), HR-SEM with EDS, HR-TEM, BET and EIS analytical techniques. Owing to the good synergistic effect of ZnZrO 2 @g-C 3 N 4 and LIG, the ZnZrO 2 @g-C 3 N 4 /LIG electrochemical sensor exhibits brilliant RA sensitivity and rapid sensing with excellent linearity (0.01–0.15 μM), low limit of detection (0.1537 μM), high sensitivity of 0.3748 μA mM −1 cm −2 , and outstanding repeatability. The sensor successfully detected RA in real samples with recoveries ranging from 96.8–103%. This study introduces a new RA detection approach that uses LIG-metal and metal oxides in electrochemical sensing.