Synthesis of Ag@ZrO2 nanoparticles: A sensitive electrochemical sensor for determination of antibiotic drug tinidazole

The synthesis of metal-doped metal oxides nanostructures has become promising electrode materials to enhance the performance of the electrochemical sensors. This work describes the synthesis of Ag@ZrO2 nanoparticles through a simplistic co-precipitation route for the electrochemical determination of tinidazole (TNZ). The structural, optical, and morphological properties of Ag@ZrO2 were characterized with diverse spectroscopic techniques. The electrochemical impedance spectrum (EIS) of the Ag@ZrO2 electrode displays a higher active surface area of 0.248 cm2 than the ZrO2 electrode (0.172 cm2) and exposes more active sites of Ag@ZrO2 provides increased electrocatalytic activity for the monitoring of TNZ compared with ZrO2. The voltammetric methods such as CV and DPV were employed to investigate the electrocatalytic activity of Ag@ZrO2/GCE. The results indicated that under optimized electrochemical conditions, the fabricated electrode displays an ultra-sensitive detection potential of TNZ at –0.29 V with a wide linear range of 0.2–414.5 μM, and the lowest detection limit (LOD) of 0.073 μM, respectively. The Ag@ZrO2 sensor demonstrated good stability, precision, and excellent selectivity in various interfering mixtures. The practicability of the Ag@ZrO2 electrochemical sensor was further confirmed to TNZ in real human serum with acceptable outcomes.