Investigation on Heterostructured SeO2–TiO2 Nanofluoroprobe for Highly Selective and Sensitive Detection of a Neonicotinoid Insecticide, Imidacloprid in Soil and Water Matrixes

Heterostructured SeO 2 –TiO 2 nanoparticles were used as a highly sensitive and selective fluoroprobe for the detection and determination of neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid. The sonication-assisted co-precipitation technique was used to create nanoparticles, which were then characterized using UV–Vis, SEM–EDS, HRTEM, XRD, and TGA. These analyses revealed that the nanoparticles had globular morphology, a crystallite size of 14 nm, a bandgap of 2.45 eV, and stability at high temperatures. Fluorescence emission at 548 nm wavelength exhibits high sensitivity and selectivity for imidacloprid over other pesticides with complete fluorescent quenching at 2 × 10 –4 M concentration of imidacloprid. Stern–Volmer equation and thermodynamic parameters applied to the experimental data over a temperature range of 20–50 °C provide the K sv value in the range of 1.56 × 10 5 to 2.69 × 10 5 M −1 and indicate strong interactions, dynamic, spontaneous, and endothermic quenching process. Furthermore, the excellent salient features and notably the unaffected performance even in the presence of various anions, fertilizer, and binary mixture of pesticides often sprayed on plants, will pave the way for the development of rapid, affordable, selective fluoroprobe for onsite monitoring of imidacloprid. The reliability for determination is also examined for spiked soil samples to develop a hybrid SeO 2 –TiO 2 nanoparticles fluoroprobe as a simple alternative to existing techniques for the detection of imidacloprid. Graphical Abstract Highlights Utilization of heterostructured SeO 2 –TiO 2 nanoparticles. Synthesized through the sonication-assisted co-precipitation technique, as a novel fluoroprobe. The synthesized nanoparticles underwent thorough characterization using various techniques such as UV–Vis, SEM-EDS, HRTEM, XRD, and TGA. The fluoroprobe demonstrated high sensitivity and selectivity for imidacloprid, outperforming other pesticides.