Investigation of Nafion coated GO-ZnO nanocomposite behaviour for sulfamethoxazole detection using cyclic voltammetry

The electrochemical behavior of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) was investigated on the surface of the glassy carbon electrode with Nafion coated GO, ZnO, GO-ZnO nanocomposites using cyclic voltammetry (CV). The results of voltammetric studies exhibited a considerable increase in background current on SMX detection at nafion coated GO-ZnO nanocomposite GC electrodes. However, the adopted fabrication procedure for GC electrodes was reported previously but only difference is nafion was drop casted over the fabricated nanocomposite electrode. In order to investigate the electrochemical performance behavior of GO/GCE, ZnO/GCE, GO-ZnO/GCE, variation on ZnO amounts with Nafion coated and uncoated GO/GC electrodes were involved and it was analyzed using cyclic voltammetry in 5 mM K₂FeCN₆ using 0.1 M KCl solution electrolyte medium. In GO-ZnO/GC electrode, peak currents got reduced when compared with GO/GC electrode but their potential voltage difference (peak-to-peak) separation was increased. Similar results was observed for nafion coated GO-ZnO/GC electrode. On comparing the electrochemical process, the importance of nafion coated GO-ZnO nanocomposites were studied and proceeded with optimized amounts of modifier on the electrode surface for SMX detection. Thus Nf/GO-ZnO with different ZnO ratios performance showed significant response on determining SMX, resulting to progress as electrode sensor for health-care applications.