Development of highly sensitive electrochemical sensor for antibiotic drug ronidazole based on spinel cobalt oxide nanorods embedded with hexagonal boron nitride

The construction of highly sensitive electrochemical sensors is essential for the determination of pharmaceutical drugs. Because pharmaceutical drugs and their metabolites are significantly polluting the aqueous systems. Herein, we have developed a highly sensitive electrochemical sensor for the determination of veterinary antibiotic drug ronidazole (RNZ). The electrode has fabricated based on cobalt oxide nanorods integrated hexagonal boron nitride-modified glassy carbon electrode (CoCo2O4 NRs/h-BN/GCE). The CoCo2O4 nanorods were prepared by cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) assisted hydrothermal method and the CoCo2O4 NRs/h-BN composite was prepared using an ultra-sonication/stirring process. The as-prepared catalysts were confirmed by p-XRD, FT-IR, XPS, and FE-SEM analysis. The electrochemical performance of the catalyst was analyzed by using CV, and DPV techniques. CoCo2O4 NRs/h-BN/GCE shows the highest electrocatalytic activity for the sensing of RNZ. Moreover, the nanocomposite shows lower LOD (3 nM) and highest sensitivity (5.845 µA µM−1 cm−2) for RNZ determination.