Design of New Sensor Functionalized with Green Nanoparticles PbO@Hyphaene Thebaica for in‐situ Amoxicillin Monitoring in Real Media

Abstract

The present work reports for the first time the design of an electrochemical sensor functionalized with green nanoparticles based on Hyphaene thebaica for amoxicillin quantification. Based on a simple one‐pot bio‐reduction reaction, lead oxide PbO coated with Hyphaene thebaica was synthesized. Ultraviolet‐visible spectroscopy (UV), fourier transform infrared (FITR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X‐ray diffraction (XRD) were used to control optical, structural, morphological, and physicochemical properties of the elaborated nanoparticles. Results demonstrated a good dispersion with a spherical morphology, which is in the order 8 nm. Regarding the good properties of nanoparticles, they are integrated to design an electrochemical sensor for amoxicillin detection. Cyclic voltammetry and square wave voltammetry were used to follow up the sensor modification and the electrochemical sensor response versus different amoxicillin concentrations. Under optimal conditions, the electrochemical sensor modified with the nanoparticles in question provides a linear detection in the range 50–10000 nM, with a detection limit of 0.105 nM. The proposed sensor also exhibits good sensitivity and selectivity against several antibiotic analogues and has been successfully applied to real samples. Aside from its power in several fields including antibacterial, antifungal, enzyme‐inhibiting and antioxidant, green nanoparticles based on Hyphaene thebaica have demonstrated an effectiveness as a sensor for the electrochemical detection of amoxicillin, highlighting the possibility of adopting these sensors as routine test for the environment monitoring.