Reliable electrochemical sensing arsenic(III) in nearly groundwater pH based on efficient adsorption and excellent electrocatalytic ability of AuNPs/CeO2-ZrO2 nanocomposite

Even though electrochemical analytical tools have been widely investigated for toxic As(III) detection and the achievements have also been so fruitful. However, electroanalysis method with efficient and high anti-interference toward As(III) in the original pH of natural water is still scarce and urgent. To this end, in this work, a sensing interface, which was fabricated with AuNPs/CeO2-ZrO2 nanocomposite modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE), was employed for sensitive and accurate analysis of As(III) in the nearly groundwater pH (according to a real groundwater sample collected from Guan Di Ying Village in Togtoh County, pH ∼8.0) using square wave anodic stripping voltammetry (SWASV). Taking advantages of the strong adsorption ability of CeO2-ZrO2 nanospheres toward As(III) in the pH 8.0 media and the extremely good catalytic activity of AuNPs, under the optimum parameters, the sensitivity and the theoretical limit of detection on the electroanalysis of As(III) were 20.674 μA ppb−1 cm−2 and 0.137 ppb, respectively. Moreover, the proposed method has relatively good anti-interference performance. Interesting, the probable reason for the enhanced sensitivity was tentatively confirmed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Finally, the practicability of the raised method has been preliminarily verified by the analysis of As(III) contaminated groundwater.