A facile graphene oxide based sensor for electrochemical detection of neonicotinoids

The increasing use of neonicotinoids in systematic seed treatment to crops is a serious cause of pollution of water resources and environment. Consequently, food sources can get eventually contaminated. To this end, it is desirable to develop suitable and effective platforms in order to obtain low-cost and sensitive sensors for neonicotinoids detection. In this work, graphene oxide modified electrodes were used as highly efficient electrochemical sensors for detection of two common insecticides - thiamethoxam and imidacloprid. The proposed sensor responded linearly in the concentration range of 10-200 µmol L−1 for both analytes and the detection limits were determined as low as 8.3 µmol L−1 and 7.9 µmol L−1 for thiamethoxam and imidacloprid, respectively. Analytical performance was also evaluated on spiked water and honey samples.