Electrochemical sensing of ractopamine by carbon nitride nanotubes/ionic liquid nanohybrid in presence of other β-agonists

Ractopamine (RAC) is an important β-agonist. It improves the growth rate and reduces the fat for animals. It is also utilized as nutrient repartitioning agent. Nonetheless, it is not licensed in many countries and RAC is dangerous for human health when it is used illegally. Thus, the development of the sensitive analytical methods for real samples is crucial. Carbon nitride nanotubes (C3N4NTs)/ionic liquid (ILs) nanocomposite was firstly synthesized for RAC detection in this study. n-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluoro phosphate was used as ionic liquid. The formation of the surfaces was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The linearity range and the detection limit (LOD) for RAC were calculated as 1.0 × 10−9-1.0 × 10−12 M and 1.0 × 10−13 M, respectively.