A novel polycaprolactone/polypyrrole/β-cyclodextrin electrochemical flexible sensor for dinotefuran pesticide detection

The monitoring and the rapid quantification of pesticides and their residues are becoming increasingly important in the field of food safety. Herein, the polycaprolactone/polypyrrole/β-cyclodextrin (PCL/PPy/β-CD) flexible sensor was developed for the electrochemical determination of new neonicotinoid insecticide Dinotefuran (DNF). The morphology, structure, and hydrophilicity of PCL/PPy/β-CD sensor probes were characterized by SEM, FTIR spectroscopy and static contact angle test. Under optimum conditions, the fabricated PCL/PPy/β-CD sensor exhibited excellent electrochemical sensing performance for DNF with a low detection limit of 0.05 μM in the linear concentration range from 0.2 μM to 50 μM and high sensitivity 14.07 μA·μM⁻¹·cm⁻², which attributed to the two-stage porous structure, good electron transfer rate and the adsorption effect. The PCL/PPy/β-CD sensor also showed reproducibility (RSD = 4.76%), stability, and high selectivity towards DNF. In addition, a real samples investigation in rice with recoveries of 96.67 % ∼ 103.65 % implied the good application potential of PCL/PPy/β-CD in DNF monitoring.