Facile sonochemical synthesis of porous and hierarchical manganese(III) oxide tiny nanostructures for super sensitive electrocatalytic detection of antibiotic (chloramphenicol) in fresh milk

We report the preparation of a porous and hierarchical manganese(III) oxide tiny nanostructures (Mn₂O₃ TNS) by a simple sonochemical approach. The nanocatalyst was synthesized by a bath-type ultrasound washer (Honda Electronics, W-118T) at 700 W and 300 kHz frequency. The morphology and chemical composition of the nanocatalyst were characterized by X-rays diffractometry (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive x-rays (EDX), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The electrocatalytic activity (ECA) was monitored by detection of toxic antibiotic drug (chloramphenicol) under phosphate buffer (pH 7.0). A facile sonochemical route was employed to prepare Mn₂O₃ TNS modified electrode. The screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) modified with Mn₂O₃ TNS was fabricated and applied for the electrochemical determination of chloramphenicol. Compared with bare SPCE, Mn₂O₃ TNS modified SPCE showed highest current response towards chloramphenicol. Furthermore, the modified sensor exhibits with a sharp peak and two linear ranges by using DPV (i) 0.015–1.28 μM with the sensitivity of 4.167 μA μM⁻¹ cm⁻² and (ii) 1.35–566.3 μM with the sensitivity of 7.205 μA μM⁻¹ cm⁻². Notably, we achieved a very low-level detection limit of 4.26 nM for the DPV detection of chloramphenicol. Further, the superior practicability of the nanosheets modified sensor can be used for real time sensing of chloramphenicol with good recover ranges.