A novel electrochemical aptasensor based on AgPdNPs/PEI-GO and hollow nanobox-like Pt@Ni-CoHNBs for procymidone detection

•A novel ultra-sensitive electrochemical aptasensor based on AgPdNPs/PEI-GO.•Pt@Ni-CoHNBs/Apt accurately quantify the signal by quantitatively combining.•The constructed sensor exhibits higher sensitivity towards PCM.•The designed PCM aptasensor has the ability to detect real samples. Herein, an aptasensor based on a signal amplification strategy was developed for the sensitive detection of procymidone (PCM). AgPd nanoparticles/Polenimine Graphite oxide (AgPdNPs/PEI-GO) was weaned as electrode modification material to facilitate electron transport and increase the active sites on the electrode surface. Besides, Pt@Ni-Co nanoboxes (Pt@Ni-CoHNBs) were utilized to be carriers for signaling tags, after hollowing ZIF-67 and growing Pt, the resulting Pt@Ni-CoHNBs has a tremendous amounts of folds occurred on the surface, enables it to carry a larger quantity of thionine, thus amplify the detectable electrochemical signal. In the presence of PCM, the binding of PCM to the signal probe would trigger a change in electrical signal. The aptasensor was demonstrated with excellent sensitivity and a low detection limit of 0.98 pg·mL−1, along with a wide linear range of 1 μg·mL−1 to 1 pg·mL−1. Meanwhile, the specificity, stability and reproducibility of the constructed aptasensor were proved to be satisfactory.