A relative study on sonochemically synthesized mesoporous WS2 nanorods & hydrothermally synthesized WS2 nanoballs towards electrochemical sensing of psychoactive drug (Clonazepam).

In this paper, mesoporous tungsten sulfide electrocatalyst (MP-WS2) were developed through a facile sonochemical technique (SC) and utilized as an electrocatalyst for the sensitive electrochemical detection of Psychoactive drug. The as-prepared SC-MP-WS2 NRs and HT-WS2 NPs (hydrothermally synthesized) were characterized using XRD, Raman, XPS, FESEM, HRTEM, BET, EDX, and electrochemical analysis, which exposed the formation of WS2 in the form of mesoporous nanorods in shape. Further, the use of the as-developed SC-MP-WS2 NRs and HT-WS2 NPs as an electrocatalyst for the detection of clonazepam (CNP). Interestingly, the SC-MP-WS2 NRs modified screen-printed carbon electrode (SC-MP-WS2 NRs/SPCE) exhibited an excellent electrocatalytic performance, and enhanced reduction peak current when compared to HT-WS2 NPs with unmodified electrode. Moreover, as-prepared SC-MP-WS2 NRs/SPCE displayed wide linear response range (10-551 µM), lower detection limit (2.37 nM) and high sensitivity (24.32 µAµM-1cm-2). Furthermore, SC-MP-WS2 NRs/SPCE showed an excellent selectivity even in the existence of potentially co-interfering compounds. The proposed sensor was successfully applied for the determination of CNP in biological and drug samples with acceptable recovery.