Facile preparation of molybdenum carbide (Mo2C) nanoparticles and its effective utilization in electrochemical sensing of folic acid via imprinting.

Herein, we propose a facile chemical reduction method to synthesize the molybdenum carbide (Mo2C) nanoparticles and its application for the electrochemical detection of folic acid (FA) through imprinting technique. Raman scattering, photoelectron spectroscopy and electron microscopy techniques were employed to study the properties of Mo2C nanoparticles. FA imprinting was carried out in the presence of pyrrole monomer over Mo2C modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE). The proposed sensor showed the detection behavior for wide range of FA concentrations from 0.01 μM to 120 μM with an excellent LOD value of 4 nM and good selectivity toward FA as compared to other co-existing species in real samples. The fabricated MIP-Mo2C/GCE sensors were able to be replicated with ∼1.9% RSD, and their reproduced sensor offered good repeatability (RSD; 1.6%) and stability.