Selective electrochemical sensing for arsenite using rGO/Fe3O4 nanocomposites

•Noble metal free rGO/Fe3O4 NCs is in-situ synthesized and characterized.•First observation on UFS analysis of rGO/Fe3O4 NCs.•High analytical performance in terms of sensitivity (0.281μA/ppb), selectivity and detection limit (0.12ppb). Herein, we report rGO/Fe3O4 nanocomposites (NCs) free from noble metals, synthesized by facile one step chemical reduction method, for electrochemical detection of arsenite in water by square wave anodic stripping Voltammetry (SWASV). The synthesized NCs were characterized for its optical, morphological and structural properties. The NCs modified glassy carbon (GCE), NCs/GCE, electrodes showed a higher sensitivity (0.281μA/ppb) and lower LOD (0.12ppb) under optimized experimental conditions. The proposed NCs/GCE electrodes show no interference towards arsenite species in the presence of common cationic interferants, namely, Cu(II), Pb(II), Ni(II), Co(II), Cd(II), Cr(II), Zn(II), etc. In addition, the proposed electrode demonstrates a good stability, reproducibility and potential practical application in electrochemical detection of arsenite.