Development of bismuth sulfide nanorods and polyamidoamine dendrimer on reduced graphene oxide as electrode nanomaterials for electrochemical determination of salbutamol

Dendrimers, a new class of nanomaterials, are receiving more attention in various fields. In this study, by combining the advantages of polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and bismuth sulfide (Bi 2 S 3 ), we came to design a new composite and its application for electrochemical sensors was investigated for the first time. As a new approach in the preparation of the composite, PAMAM was used for the first time to increase the surface of Bi 2 S 3 with rGO, which ultimately led to an increase in the active surface area of the sensor (5 times compared to the bare electrode). For the first time, we used the sonochemical method for interaction between PAMAM with Bi 2 S 3 and rGO, which was a simpler and faster method to prepare the composite. The purposeful design of the composite was done by using the experimental design method to obtain the optimum composition of components. The new nanocomposite was successfully applied for simple and sensitive electrochemical sensing of salbutamol for controlling the health of food. Salbutamol is used as a prohibited additive in animal and poultry feed. The sensor has good sensitivity (35 times increase compared to the bare electrode) and a low detection limit (1.62 nmol/L). Moreover, it has acceptable selectivity, good repeatability (1.52–3.50%), good reproducibility (1.88%), and satisfactory accuracy (recoveries: 84.6–97.8%). An outstanding feature of the sensor is its broad linear range (5.00–6.00 × 10 2 nmol/L). This sensor is well suited for the determination of salbutamol in milk, sausage, and livestock and poultry feed samples.