Nanoplatelets/GO for the Identification of Carbonfuran in Food Items

Pesticides have played a remarkable role in the human health issues towards our life and security scenarios. Pesticides are gaining new attention to protecting our livestock and crops from pests, weeds, nematodes and insects. Preferably, the carbamates contained pesticides are utilized in gardening, agriculture, forestry and therapeutic pharmaceuticals, at simultaneous to minimal nonpersistence and bioaccumulation in the present environmental needs [1].

A specific and most toxic one is carbofuran (CF) also called as 2,3-dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-7-benzofuranyl N-methyl carbamate, a compound which belongs to the carbamate pesticides family [2].

Figure 1. Schematic representation of Dy₂Sn₂O₇/GO for the electrochemical detection of carbofuran (CF) in vegetable samples [3].

World Health Organisation (WHO) have insisted an alert about CF and their incorporated items can have possible damage to the biological properties of plants (in enzyme), soil as well as human parts (gene, neuro, skin, reproductive) problems. A major role of humans and some animals are living based on vegetables as food items, so considerably determinations of CF needed to avoid toxic impacts for consumer health and environmental safety. Scientifically advanced techniques like (visible LED, flow injection chemiluminescence, immune chromatography, photocatalysis, and fluorimetry) are used to estimate the amount of CF in the food items. Furthermore, a new electrochemical technical approach is to be announced for CF identification with eco-friendly, low-cost, and very sensitive. Thirumalraj et al., have reported a new hybrid electrocatalyst material (Dy₂Sn₂O₇/GO), was synthesized via graphene oxide (GO) incorporated with dysprosium stannate nanoplatelets (Dy₂Sn₂O₇) which is prepared by co-precipitation method followed by ultrasonication, was used for the electrochemical detection of CF in vegetable samples. This research team provides the details of physicochemical properties and interlayer combination of electrocatalyst materials and their performance were tested via various techniques, like electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and Cyclic voltammetry (CV). Additional impact reflects in their real-time practical measurements of CF in our food items [3, 4].

Stability Analysis and Determination of CF, Interference:

For the potential real-time analysis, the practical investigation of CF is significantly important for CF in the environmental samples. Hence, the study of detection level of CF should be done. For the estimation of detection level of CF, the DPV was performed with Dy₂Sn₂O₇/GO composite electrode for the detection of various concentrations of CF. It can be seen that the results have showed that oxidation peak current gets gradually increased with consecutive excess additions of CF in the concentration level of 0.05-143.5 μM. Furthermore, the results revealed that the Dy₂Sn₂O₇/GO composite was found to be superior electrocatalysts with an excellent electrocatalytic activity and potential candidate for the low-level analysis of CF in the environmental samples. The Dy₂Sn₂O₇/GO composite was found to be ultrasensitive with low-level detection candidate for the analysis of CF based upon these results.

The anti-interference effect of CF with Dy₂Sn₂O₇/GO electrode was investigated by DPV, are conducted in the presence of 25 μM CF and 50-fold excess concentration of cations of calcium (Ca²⁺), cadmium (Cd²⁺), magnesium (Mg²⁺), copper (Cu²⁺), and iron (Fe³⁺) with 20-fold excess concentration of ascorbic acid (AA), carbendazim (CBZ), malathion (MTN), caffeic acid (CAF), aminophenol (AP), parathion (PTN), 2,4,6,-trichlorophenol (2,4,6-TCP), and thiamethoxam (TMN). It can be observed that while adding the excess concentration with other interfering compounds, there is no any disturbance in the oxidation peak current, and the relative error was found to be ≤5% which indicates that the Dy₂Sn₂O₇/GO was the suitable electrocatalyst for the real-time analysis of CF for the practical applications. For the determination of the capability of the proposed electrode, repeatability and operational storage stability of the Dy₂Sn₂O₇/GO electrode were also been investigated in addition. For the repeatability examination, DPV were carried out for the Dy₂Sn₂O₇/GO electrode performed with 10 continuous measurements in N₂-saturated 25 μM CF containing PBS, pH 7.0. It can be observed that stability of the anodic peak current was slightly decreased after 10 measurements, with a relative error of ≤2.3%. This indicates the acceptable repeatability level of the Dy₂Sn₂O₇/GO electrode for the consecutive analysis of CF. Also the operational storage stability of the Dy₂Sn₂O₇/GO electrode was tested in N₂-saturated 25 μM CF containing PBS, pH 7.0 [5]. Hence, the results showed that a minor variation in the oxidation peak current for the developed electrode after an interval of 20 days. Therefore, the proposed Dy₂Sn₂O₇/GO electrode offers unique electrochemical properties with an excellent operational stability for the CF detection.

Real-Time Analysis of CF:

DPV was conducted with Dy₂Sn₂O₇/GO electrode for the vegetable samples using a standard addition method for the real-time practical analysis. The process for the preparation of vegetable extracts was the top layer skin peeled off, dried, and crushed finely from the vegetable samples. Extractions of the crushed samples were mixed with 0.1 M of sodium hydroxide for the hydrolysis. It can be seen that the results showed no current response of CF for the vegetable extract which have used with supernatant solutions. The vegetable samples are ranged from 96.5 to 99.9% with RSD less than 1.72 was the outcome recovery of CF. This revealed that the Dy₂Sn₂O₇/GO composite electrode is a required candidate for the low-level analysis.

Our SNB team have emphasize this research article to help the reader to know about the development of a low cost, with a very sensitive approach for the determination of toxic CF in vegetable samples for real-time application. The presence of an effective composite lead be formulated to avoid the fouling of the electrode surface, to enhance the charge transfer rate, to improve electrocatalytic activity towards the electrochemical analysis of CF. Beyond the preparation of hybrid composite materials and characterizations, this research team have pointed out the fast electron migration over the interface (electrode-electrolyte). The performance of Dy₂Sn₂O₇/GO materials are monitored by techniques (CV, DPV) and expressed with effective electrocatalytic activities (high concentration, scan rate, pH levels, high storage stability) towards the identification of CF. In addition, the real-time sample analysis of vegetable samples (cabbage, potato, carrot, eggplant) are compared with relative standard deviation analysis. Hence, the above conclusions and suggestions in this content will be guiding us from the prediction of CF for the future challenges.

References:

S. Mishra et al., Chemosphere 2020, 259, 27419
S. Sun et al., Curr. Pollut. Reports 2018, 4, 240.
B. Thirumalraj, et al., ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng., 8, 48, 17882 (2020), Doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.0c07973.
P. Veerakumar et al., J. Electroanal. Chem 2018, 826, 207.
M. Velmurugan et al., J. Colloid Interface Sci. 2017, 485, 123.

--- Dr. K. Rajkumar

Email:drcrystalphd@gmail.com

Author Profile

Comments

Electro-Organic Synthesis: Next Emerging Technique

Industrial developments, excessive energy consumption, sustainable technologies, environmental cleaning processes are major topics of political and social discourse. Current innovations are rated not only focusing on their benefit and utility but also concerning their eco-friendly approaches. The development of green technological processes is becoming more important and requires harmless energy sources. Particularly over the past decade, the severe limitations of fossil resources intensify the movement towards sustainable synthesis techniques with a strict cutback in the ecological footprint [ 1 ]. Electro-organic synthesis belongs to the synthetic organic chemistry discipline that facilities the direct use of electricity to generate valuable compounds. Hence, it is possible to transfer green aspects of sustainable energy sources to the whole production process [ 2 ]. Since the Kolbe’s discoveries of using electricity as a reagent for organic transformations over 170 years ago, ...

Designing of Corrosion Resistant Alloys via Percolation Theory

Canada and USA Scientists have reported on designing of corrosion-resistant alloys via percolation theory and published in Nature Materials on 01 February 2021. Nickel–chromium, Iron–chromium binary alloys can serve as the prototypical corrosion-resistant metals owing to its presence of a nanometre-thick protective passive oxide film. The main key criterion for good passive behavior is the passive film should be compromised via a scratch or abrasive wear that can be reformed with a little metal dissolution. This could be a principal reason for the stainless steels and other chromium containing alloys that are used for critical applications which ranges from nuclear reactor components to biomedical implants. A long-standing unanswered question in corrosion science is the unravelling of the compositional dependence of the electrochemical behavior of the alloys [ 1, 2 ]. The discovery of the family of these alloys were increased its rate with the advent of artificial intelligence, da...

Electric Vehicle: Public Health and Climate Benefits

A research team led by Daniel Peters at Northwestern University has investigated that if we introducing electrifying vehicles in the streets of the United States could annually prevent hundreds-to-thousands of premature accidental deaths.This work highlights the potential of a synergistic solution to reduce CO 2 emissions by hundreds to millions of tons annually. The estimate of economic damages induced by introducing electrifying vehicles (EV) adoption is substantial. With current infrastructure, about 25% of electrifying vehicles adoption in the US can save approximately $16.8 billion annually, has been told in the study entitled"Public Health and Climate Benefits and Trade offs of U.S. Vehicle Electrification," in GeoHealth on 13 th August 2020 [1] . Vehicle electrification in the United States could prevent hundreds to thousands of premature deaths annually while reducing carbon emissions by hundreds of millions of tons. This highlights the potential of co-beneficial...

Novel Approach of Plastic Waste to Flash Graphene

Prof. Algozeeb and his research collaboration team have investigated an novel approach of upcycling plastic waste (PW) products to flash graphene (FG). This method relies on Flash Joule Heating (FJH) to convert PW into FG. A sequential direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) flash is used in order to make a high-quality graphene. In this FJH process, they established without catalyst and works for PW mixtures that can make the process suitable for handling landfill PW. In 21 st century, PW pollution is considerable one among the various environmental issues. A very large fraction of PW ends up in the ocean, which leads to the formation of micro- and nanoplastics that threaten marine life, micro-organisms, useful bacteria, and humans. From the intense carbon footprint process, most of these synthesized plastics are used only once before dumping into landfills or water ways that terminate in the oceans. Hence, upcycling PW to higher value materials and chemicals is econ...

AN ACT OF FACE MASK MATERIAL USED TO PROTECT US FROM SARS-COV-2

“ In the absence of a vaccine, or effective antiviral, one of our only remaining strategies for controlling COVID-19 is to physically block the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the community ” On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic [1] . In the absence of a vaccine, or effective antiviral, one of our only remaining strategies for controlling COVID-19 is to physically block the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the community. Given that COVID-19 is a respiratory illness, the most effective physical defense likely involves widespread public use of face coverings, in conjunction with other control measures [ 2 ] . Face coverings (also variously referred to as face masks, nonmedical masks, community masks or barrier masks ) function primarily in source control; capturing droplets expelled by an infected individual [3] . Figure 1. DIY masks to protect against from viruses sounds like a crazy idea. source click here In the absence of an...

PROSPECTS ON PHOTOBIOREFINERY

Very recently, Prof. Dr. K. Faungnawakij and his research group have summarized a mini review report on an emerging renewable technique of Photobiorefinery . This is one of the beyond technique of Artificial Photosynthesis (AP) [1] . Despite great promises, AP technologies for solar H2 production and CO2 reduction are far uncompetitive to other promising technologies at the current stage . However, despite an enormous effort, time, and budget paid on AP-related researches throughout several decades, AP technologies have struggled to strive beyond laboratory demonstration except a very few exceptions [2] . This bitter reality makes the translation of this excellent science to practical application questionable [3] . Technoeconomic analysis shows that without achieving the aggressive technology targets, this technology will not be commercially viable. This has directed the research community towards the development of highly efficient yet expensive devices. While tremendous p...

Electromagnetic Field: Non-Chemical Water Treatment Technology

An interesting review report on “A critical review of the application of electromagnetic fields for scaling control in water systems: mechanisms, characterization, and operation” was reported by Lu Lin, Wenbin Jiang, Xuesong Xu and Pei Xu published in Nature Partner Journals Clean Water published on June 2020 [1] . Water is the precious matter in the world. source U.S. General Services Administration has interested on non-chemical water treatment technologies. It has mentioned following important points: n on-chemical technology promises to increase the period between required blow-down cycles, thus reducing water consumption , minimizes associated issues of chemical storage, handling, and disposal, and may permit on-site re-use of cooling-tower “blow-down” water as “grey water” , it promises to be life cycle cost effective based solely on the reduction in chemical costs , this technology may reduce or eliminate chemical costs, it may not reduce other contractor costs ...

A Novel Green Synthesis of Au/TiO2 Nanocomposites

Prof. Lahiru A. Wijenayaka, Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (SLINTEC), Mahenwatte, Pitipana, Homagama, Sri Lanka and his collaboration team has reported on the interesting materials for effective environmental alternative remediation via nontoxic, low cost and eco-friendly methods dedicated to the scientific community. Here, a novel, facile, and green synthetic approach to synthesize gold nanoparticle decorated over TiO 2 (Au/TiO 2 ) nanocomposites for sustainable environmental development has been discussed [ 1 ] . Based on various metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) photocatalysts, titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) is the most widely used, owing to its effective and excellent results in optical transmittance, high refractive index, chemical stability, concurrently being stable, nontoxic, and inexpensive [ 2 ]. They are highlighted with the following points: (i) Synthesis of the Au/TiO 2 nanocomposite, (ii) Microscopic characterization, (iii) Dye adsorption on Au/TiO 2 and (iv) Photoca...

Postdocs Crisis: The "Last Generation" of Scientists

Postdoctoral Researchers play a vital role in the research productivity of several countries and serving as leaders, mentors, guides, teachers, and scientists. These researchers have developed their own skills and preparing themself for their scientific research careers with various research groups worldwide. Even performing in a short term, they need to spend additional years in some special cases for succession in their research careers. Senior research investigators or leaders who have promised to their younger colleagues or students for a long term contract in the academics should find a new pathway to make it possible to stay and plan for their long-term career. Also, these investigators should be more flexible, patience, and supportive for everyone in their research groups. But the main key point which they should focus on that was the researchers who want to pursue fulfilling careers in science elsewhere need to be supported in all means, whatever matters, whoever may be, the ta...

Single-Atom Catalysis in Chemistry World

The recent interest on the heterogeneous single-atom catalysts (SACs) were composed of atomically dispersed active metal cen ters in catalyst research field, because of the increased atom utilization and unique catalytic properties of such materials, which differ greatly from those of conventional nano or subnano counter parts. In this case, the fabrication of SACs are challenging, especially in the case of noble metal based catalysts and many researches are ongoing in this field for the development of improved catalysts. Many chall enges have faced for the hybridization of controlling of single atoms in suitable host materials, but it has also equally opened with unique opportunities for catalyst design. SACs with atomically dispersed active metal centers on supports represent an intermediary between heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis. Therefore, understanding the homogeneous catalysis prototype creates a great opportunity for designing SACs and developing related applications....

Search This Blog