Low Cost and Reliable Electrochemical Sensor for Rutin Detection Based on Au Nanoparticles-Loaded ZnS Nanocomposites

Facile preparation of electrode modified materials with low-cost nanocomposites is an important step to develop highly active electrochemical sensors for mass-market applications. Here we fabricated Au nanoparticles (AuNPs)-loaded ZnS nanocomposites for the sensitive determination of rutin due to the cooperative amplification of the conductivity and catalytic activity of AuNPs on ZnS spheres resulting from the high loading ratio of AuNPs on ZnS spheres. Under the optimal conditions, the developed sensor based on AuNPs-loaded ZnS nanocomposites exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity towards rutin in a linear range from 1 × 10-7 mol/L to 2 × 10-5 mol/L with a limit of detection of 15.3 nM at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3. Furthermore, the proposed method gave satisfactory results for rutin determination in pharmaceutical tablets, which offer promising potential for rutin electrochemical analysis in serum monitoring or Chinese medical analysis owing to its simplicity, low cost, high sensitivity and good stability.