Simple sonochemical synthesis of flake-ball shaped bismuth vanadate for voltammetric detection of furazolidone

•Flake-ball shaped BiVO4 microstructures were synthesized through a simple sonochemical method.•The fabricated BV/SPCE electrode shows an enhanced electrochemical detection of FZD.•The proposed BV/SPCE exhibited a linear range of 0.1 to 1189.8 µM and a lower LOD of 0.016 µM towards FZD reduction.•The electrochemical determination of FZD provides good cyclic stability up to 100 cycles. Schematic illustration of the sonochemical synthesis of BiVO4 microstructures and their electrochemical application. [Display omitted] Transition metal vanadates have an enhanced number of active sites and performance in the electrocatalytic activity due to the synergic effect. The present work demonstrated a facile synthesis of bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) flake-ball shaped microstructure by sonochemical approach for excellent selective voltammetric detection of furazolidone (FZD). The prepared material was studied through various spectroscopic and microscopic techniques to confirm the crystal phase, compositional, and morphological profile of the flake-ball shaped BiVO4. Based on the results, the crystallite size has been measured to be ~ 18.89 nm using the Debye-Scherer equation. The flake-ball shaped structure and material formation was confirmed by morphology, crystal phase, chemical structural, and valence state analyses. For the electrochemical evaluation, synthesized BiVO4 was drop cast on screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) and scrutinized their electrochemical performance towards the detection of FZD. The electrochemical investigation of the modified electrode was studied using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and cyclic voltammetry (CV), and differential pulse voltammetric (DPV) techniques. In addition, the modified electrode displayed a lower detection limit (LOD) of 0.016 µM and respectable sensitivity of 0.75 µA µM–1 cm–2, which surpassed the several earlier reported FZD sensors. Furthermore, the proposed sensor act as a promising electrode for real sample investigation of biological samples of human blood serum and urine with satisfactory recovery rates of 96.6–99.8%. Thereby, the developed sensor exhibits long cycling stability, excellent repeatability, reproducibility, and selectivity.