Ultrasensitive electrochemical sensor via bismuth vanadate anchored graphite for detection of carbendazim in fruits and vegetables

Herein, we fabricated a novel electrochemical sensor based on bismuth vanadate/graphite nanocomposites (BiVO4/Gr/GCE) for rapid and ultrasensitive detection of carbendazim. The fabricated BiVO4/Gr/GCE sensor exhibited better electrochemical performances toward carbendazim than the sensors that modified by BiVO4, Gr and bare-electrode, respectively. For the BiVO4/Gr/GCE nano-composite, the porous Gr possesses large specific area, almighty conductivity capability, high-efficiency charge transfer, while hollow BiVO4 can promote the adsorption and electro-transfer efficiency of CBD on the BiVO4/Gr/GCE sensor. Additionally, Gr with remarkable conductivity could largely compensate the inferior-conductivity and prevent the aggregation dispersion of BiVO4. The synergistic effect of BiVO4 and Gr result in significant electro-activity good electrochemical sensing capability towards CBD. The fabricated sensor showed a wide linear response range in 4.0 × 10−8∼1.0 × 10−5, 1.0 × 10−5∼8.0 × 10−5 M with the correlation coefficient of R2 = 0.997 and R2 = 0.995, respectively. The limit of detection was 3.78 × 10−9 M (S/N = 3). Moreover, the proposed BiVO4/Gr/GCE sensor as well displays good operating stability, reproducibility, anti-disruptors, and repeatability for carbendazim detection. Furthermore, it was successfully used for carbendazim detection in pear and tomato juice with satisfactory recoveries of 90%∼108.3%, indicating that the sensor has a promising application for the detection of actual carbendazim. •An ultrasensitive electrochemical sensor via bismuth vanadate anchored graphite was first developed for the detection of carbendazim.•The proposed BiVO4/Gr sensor displays good operating stability, reproducibility, and repeatability for carbendazim detection.•The fabricated sensor showed a wider linear relationship and lower limit of detection.•The fabricated electrochemical sensor was successfully used for carbendazim detection in fruits and vegetables.