Exploring electrochemical kinetic behaviors and interfacial charge transfer of pure and Ni-doped ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles-based sensing nanoplatform for ultra-sensitive detection of chloramphenicol

ZnFe2O4 (ZFO) nanomaterial was doped with a divalent transition metal cation of Ni2+ (NixZn1-xFe2O4, x=0, 0.2, 0.4, and 0.8) and characterized by various analytical techniques. Powder X-ray diffraction revealed the formation of a single-phase cubic spinel structure, while the stabilization of crystal structure for Ni2+-doped samples was observed. The average crystalline size, d-spacing, and lattice parameters increased with increasing in Ni2+ concentration within NixZn1-xFe2O4, due to differences in the ionic radius, the cation distribution at A-B sites, and the creation of surface oxygen vacancies within ZFO structure. From electrochemical measurements, NixZn1-xFe2O4-based electrodes showed excellent enhancements in charge transfer ability and conductivity with the highest rate constant (0.018 ms−1), the lowest peak-to-peak separation (206 mV), the lowest Rct (118 Ω), and the largest electrochemical active area (0.248 cm2), compared to that of bare SPE. Among them, Ni0.8Zn0.2Fe2O4/SPE provided outstanding electrochemical behaviors and achieved the best sensing performance with the widened concentration linear range from 0.25 to 50 μM and a rather low detection limit of 0.2 μM for chloramphenicol detection. The most important reason for this positive advance comes from the unique synergistic effects of Ni doping into the ZFO host structure. The excellent enhancements in adsorption capacity (Г) (1.4 times higher), number of oxygen vacancies, charge transfer rate constant (approximately 1.15 times higher), and catalytic rate constant (30 times greater) were recorded at Ni-doped ZFO-based electrodes, compared to pure ZFO-based electrode. Furthermore, the detailed hypotheses and possible mechanisms explaining these impressive enhancements were explored. Our work provides insight into the correlation between the Ni-doping and electrochemical characteristics, which has implications for tailoring the electrochemical performance of spinel ferrites across diverse applications and the design of novel spinel ferrite nanomaterials. [Display omitted] •Ni-Doping effect on ZnFe2O4 crystal structure.•Electrochemical Kinetic Behaviors and Interfacial Charge Transfer on Ni-doped ZnFe2O4-based SPEs.•Electrochemical kinetic parameters lated to the redox reactions of K3Fe(CN)6/K4Fe(CN)6 redox probe and CAP molecules.•Mechanism and hypothesis for the impressive enhancements in the electrochemical characteristics and sensing performance.