Rapid sonochemical synthesis of silver nano-leaves encapsulated on iron pyrite nanocomposite: An excellent catalytic application in the electrochemical detection of herbicide (Acifluorfen).

Herein, we developed a silver nanoparticles decorated iron pyrite flowers (FeS2 @Ag NL) based nanocomposite was prepared by a sonochemical method. The formation of FeS2 @Ag NL nanocomposite was confirmed by XRD, XPS, HR-TEM and analytical techniques. The FeS2 @Ag NL/SPCE was potentially applied towards electrochemical detection of toxic herbicide (acifluorfen-AFF). This provided an efficient sensor platform anchoring FeS2 @Ag NL on its surface. Under optimized conditions of differential pulse voltammetric transduction, a linear relationship between the current and the concentration was obtained in the range of 0.05-1126.45 µM for Acifluorfen. The detection limit was observed to be 0.0025 µM. the modified sensor exhibits excellent electrochemical performance, including good linear range, nanomolar detection limit, high sensitivity, and desirable stability. Particularly, the practical applicability was revealed by quantifying the AFF concentration in biological samples.