Construction of pitch-derived porous carbon-functionalized electrochemical aptasensor for sensitivity detection of chloramphenicol

Chloramphenicol (CAP) is widely used in human and veterinary medicine but has a harmful side effect on human/animal health and ecological risks. The current methods for the detection of CAP are commonly expensive, complex and time-wasting. Herein, a simple, low-cost and high-effective electrochemical sensor is constructed for the detection of CAP using rationally designed pitch-derived porous carbon (PPC) as the conducting medium. The modification of PPC on the glassy carbon electrode is adopted to realize the amplification of electrochemical signal, and then the aptamers with negative charge are introduced to the PPC-functionalized electrode to attract the positively charged CAP and to enhance hydrophilicity of the modified electrode. The electrochemical performance of the fabricated sensor is investigated using cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry, showing a fast current change and high-selectivity for the detection of CAP, and exhibiting outstanding sensing performance with a wide linear range of 1.0–500 μM and a low detection limit of 0.1 μM. In addition, the sensor also shows excellent repeatability (RSD = 4.1%), reproducibility (RSD = 5.0%), stability (RSD = 8.3%) and high selectivity. Moreover, the constructed sensor is capable of precisely detecting CAP in real water samples with recoveries of 93.0% to 102.8% and relative standard deviations of less than 4.5%.