Rational design of dysprosium cobalt oxide decorated on flower-like molybdenum disulfide: Development of an electrochemical sensor for antipsychotic drug promazine

The construction of perovskite oxides and metal chalcogenide nanocomposites has been employed to develop electrochemical sensors with outstanding sensitivity and low detection limit. In this work, we have successfully synthesized dysprosium cobalt oxide (DCO) encapsulated with molybdenum disulfide (MS) via ultrasonication way, which is employed for the electrochemical determination of antipsychotic drug promazine (PMZ). The as-prepared DCO/MS nanocomposite was scrutinized by different techniques such as X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis, field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), and high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HR-TEM). Further, the prepared nanocomposites were modified on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) surface and electrochemical activity was inspected through cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) in 0.1 M phosphate buffer solution (PB) with a potential window of 0.0–0.9 V. As a result, DCO/MS promotes superior electrochemical performance because of high electrochemical active surface area (0.396 cm2), good conductivity, and synergetic effect. The developed electrochemical sensor exhibits a broad linear range (0.002 – 695.6 μM) and the lowest detection limit of 0.005 µM, excellent sensitivity, repeatability, and reproducibility. Finally, the fabricated sensor was successively used for the real-time detection of PMZ in environmental and biological samples with feasible recoveries.