A new approach for electrochemical detection of organochlorine compound lindane: Development of molecular imprinting polymer with polyoxometalate/carbon nitride nanotubes composite and validation

•Molecular imprinted sensor including polyoxometalate/carbon nitride nanotubes composite is developed for Lindane recognition.•The prepared sensor based on composite and molecularly imprinted polymer is characterized by several methods.•The molecular imprinted sensor shows high stability, repeatability, reproducibility and reusability.•The molecular imprinted sensor is preferred in comparison with the other analytical methods. Organochlorine compounds such as gamma-lindane (γ-LND) are very toxic and important ubiquitous contaminants in the environment. In this report, new molecular imprinted sensor on polyoxometalate (POM, H3PW12O40)/carbon nitride nanotubes (C3N4 NTs) composite were prepared for γ-LND detection. The structures of C3N4 NTs and H3PW12O40/C3N4 NTs composite were highlighted by scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive x-ray analysis (EDX), x ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), atomic force microscopy (AFM), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and cyclic voltammetry (CV). γ-LND imprinted electrode was prepared in the presence of 100.0 mM pyrrole containing 25.0 mM γ-LND. The analytical results have revealed that 1.0 × 10−10−1.0 × 10−8 M and 2.0 × 10−11 M were found as linearity range and the detection limit (LOD). Furthermore, the developed sensor was examined in terms of stability, repeatability, reproducibility and reusability. Finally, the imprinted sensor was applied to orange juice samples having high recovery.