Incorporating Cerium Vanadate into Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes for Fabrication of Sensitive Electrochemical Sensors toward Sulfamethazine Determination in Water Samples

Abstract

We developed a simple hydrothermal technique for the fabrication of a flexible integrated composite containing cerium vanadate (CeVO4) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The CeVO4/MWCNTs composite possessed good conductivity and interesting electrochemical catalytic performance when immobilized on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE). This CeVO4/MWCNTs-GCE sensor provided excellent analytical performance for the detection of the sulfonamide antibacterial drug sulfamethazine (SMZ). Benefiting from the significantly enlarged surface area of the modified electrode and the catalytic effect of CeVO4-MWCNTs, the sensor offered high sensitivity, good stability, fine selectivity, and a remarkable limit of detection (LOD) of 0.02 μM. Furthermore, the sensor also exhibited ideal performance with good recovery and precision when applied to SMZ residue detection in real aquaculture water samples.