Electrochemical determination of estrogenic compound bisphenol F in food packaging using carboxyl functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes modified glassy carbon electrode

•A simple rapid electrochemical detection method was developed for EDCs-BPF.•The new electrochemical sensor showed an excellent electrocatalytic activity to BPF.•The peak current of BPF was remarkably enhanced by MWCNT-COOH modified GCE.•The sensor showed high sensitivity, well reproducibility and anti-jamming ability.•The method was satisfactorily employed to analyse BPF in food packaging materials.

A simple and highly sensitive electroanalytical method for the determination of bisphenol F (BPF) was developed, which was carried out on multi-walled carbon nanotubes-COOH (MWCNT-COOH) modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). The results showed that MWCNT-COOH remarkably enhanced the oxidation of BPF, which improved the anodic peak current of BPF significantly. The mechanism was oxidation of BPF lose electrons on the electrode surface via adsorption-controlled process, electrode reaction is the two electrons/two protons process. Under the optimised conditions, the oxidation peak current was proportional to BPF concentration the range from 0.12 to 6.01 μg mL−1. The detection limit was 0.11 μg mL−1 (S/N = 3), and the relative standard deviation (R.S.D.) was 3.5% (n = 9). Moreover, the MWCNT-COOH/GCE electrode showed good reproducibility, stability and anti-interference. Therefore, the proposed method was successfully applied to determine BPF in food packing and the results were satisfactory.