A highly selective electrochemical sensor for chloramphenicol based on three-dimensional reduced graphene oxide architectures.

Chloramphenicol (CAP), as a broad-spectrum antibiotic, has been worldwide banned for using in the food producing animals due to its overuse may cause severe threats to public health. It is therefore highly desirable to develop facile, selective and sensitive biosensor for CAP detection and monitoring in drug and foodstuff samples. In this work, three-dimensional reduced graphene oxide (3DRGO) architectures were prepared through a green and template-free approach and used as active electrode materials to develop a highly selective electrochemical sensor for CAP detection. The spontaneous reduction and assembly of graphene oxide via zinc foil was completed at room temperature, followed by washing with diluted hydrogen chloride solution, to produce 3DRGO. The as-prepared 3DRGO were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy. An electrochemical biosensor for CAP was constructed based on 3DRGO-modified glass carbon electrode (3DRGO/GCE). It was revealed that the present 3DRGO/GCE sensor exhibited a remarkable performance with a detection range of 1-113μmolL‒1 and a detection limit of 0.15μmolL‒1 at physiological pH 7.4. Moreover, the sensor showed an excellent selectivity, stability, reproducibility, and satisfying recovery result for CAP detection in real samples.