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Oxygen vacancy–rich Fe2(MoO4)3 combined with MWCNTs for electrochemical sensors of fentanyl and its analogs

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Abstract

Hundreds of thousands of people dying from the abuse of fentanyl and its analogs. Hence, the development of an efficient and highly accurate detection method is extremely relevant and challenging. Therefore, we proposed the introduction of oxygen defects into Fe2(MoO4)3 nanoparticles for improving the catalyst performance and combining it with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) for electrochemical detection of fentanyl and its analogs. Oxygen vacancy–rich Fe2(MoO4)3 (called r-Fe2(MoO4)3) nanoparticles were successfully synthesized and characterized in detail by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), Raman spectra, BET, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and investigated by comparison with oxygen vacancy–poor Fe2(MoO4)3 (called p-Fe2(MoO4)3). The obtained oxygen vacancy–rich Fe2(MoO4)3 was ultrasonically composited with MWCNTs for modification of glassy carbon electrodes (GCEs) used for the electrochemical detection of fentanyl and its analogs. The modified MWCNT-GCE showed ultrasensitivity to fentanyl, sufentanil, alfentanil, and acetylfentanyl with limits of detection (LOD) of 0.006 µmol·L−1, 0.008 µmol·L−1, 0.018 µmol·L−1, and 0.024 µmol·L−1, respectively, and could distinguish among the four drugs based on their peak voltages. Besides, the obtained r-Fe2(MoO4)3/MWCNT composite also exhibited high repeatability, selectivity, and stability. It showed satisfactory detection performance on real samples, with recoveries of 70.53 ~ 94.85% and 50.98 ~ 82.54% in serum and urine for the four drugs in a concentration range 0.2 ~ 1 µM, respectively. The experimental results confirm that the introduction of oxygen vacancies effectively improves the sensitivity of fentanyl electrochemical detection, and this work provides some inspiration for the development of catalytic materials for electrochemical sensors with higher sensitivity.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [Tao, Jin], upon reasonable request.

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Funding

The authors would like to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42063002) and Guizhou Provincial Key Technology R&D Program (No. [2023] General 441) for their financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guangzhou Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 510650, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Zhidong Zhao, Xingrui Qi, Yuan He, Nian Li, Huajie Lai, Bo Liu, Yufang Chen & Tao Jin

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100000, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Zhidong Zhao, Xingrui Qi, Nian Li, Huajie Lai, Bo Liu, Yufang Chen & Tao Jin

  3. Guizhou Police College, 550005, Guiyang, People’s Republic of China

    Zhidong Zhao

  4. CAS Testing Technical Services (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd, 510650, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Yuan He, Huajie Lai, Bo Liu, Yufang Chen & Tao Jin

  5. Guangdong Industry Polytechnic, 510300, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Yuan He

  6. CAS Engineering Laboratory for Special Fine Chemicals, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510650, People’s Republic of China

    Huajie Lai, Bo Liu, Yufang Chen & Tao Jin

  7. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Organic Polymer Materials for Electronics, Guangzhou, 510650, People’s Republic of China

    Huajie Lai, Bo Liu, Yufang Chen & Tao Jin

  8. West Center, Guangzhou Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing, 400714, People’s Republic of China

    Huajie Lai, Bo Liu, Yufang Chen & Tao Jin

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  1. Zhidong Zhao
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Correspondence to Tao Jin.

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Zhao, Z., Qi, X., He, Y. et al. Oxygen vacancy–rich Fe2(MoO4)3 combined with MWCNTs for electrochemical sensors of fentanyl and its analogs. Microchim Acta 191, 159 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-024-06222-6

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