Application of a PLA/PBAT/Graphite sensor obtained by electrospinning on determination of 2,4,6-trichlorophenol

The widespread use of pesticides requires effective detection and quantification tools to improve monitoring of environmental quality. Electrochemical sensors offer a fast and sensitive response, and can also be optimized by combining several constituents and techniques, including biodegradable materials, being useful in the determination of chemical agents from environmental samples. Here, we produced a polymer-based sensor for 2,4,6-trichlorophenol determination, through electrospinning of poly(lactic acid)/poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PLA/PBAT) blend with graphite. The graphite-containing fibres were thermally treated and wetted in mineral oil, thus forming a paste, used as an electrode in the electrochemical sensor. The thermal analysis indicated a disorganization of the polymeric chains between the aromatic carbon chain of the PBAT polymer, resulting in a material with low enthalpy, lower crystallinity and greater thermal degradability after insertion of graphite in polymeric fibres. NIR spectra revealed changes related to the carbonyls of the polymeric ester groups. Cyclic voltammetry and square wave voltammetry techniques were applied to study the electrochemical behaviour of developed sensor. The thermal treatment of graphite-containing fibres increased the adhesion surface in which occurs the adsorption of the analyte on the electrode, which improved the peak current in the electrochemical tests. The PLA/PBAT/Graphite sensor applied to determination of 2,4,6-TCP presented the detection and quantification limits of 7.84 × 10^-8 mol L^-1 (0.0155 mg L^-1) and 2.36 × 10^-7 mol L^-1 (0.0466 mg L^-1) with a linearity response of 1.00 × 10^-7 mol L^-1 and 2.00 × 10^-6 mol L^-1 with correlation coefficient of 0.993 (r²).