WS2 nanoparticle integrated MWCNT as an efficient electrode material for electrochemical sensing of chloramphenicol in pharmaceutical samples

Abstract

Detection of an antibiotic drug chloramphenicol (CPN) in pharmaceutical samples is very essential due to its wide application in food, agriculture and healthcare sector and nanomaterials are gaining significant attention as efficient electrode materials in the realm of CPN residue diagnostics. Among these materials, graphene-based compounds stand out due to their intriguing π–π interaction properties. In this study, we present a facile hydrothermal technique for the synthesis of WS<inf>2</inf> nanoparticles which later decorated on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (WS<inf>2</inf>-MWCNT). This nanocomposite material was then employed for the electrochemical detection of CPN simultaneously by two techniques: cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). The WS<inf>2</inf>-MWCNT based sensor exhibited an impressive low limit of detection of 0.041 nM (CV) and 0.34 nM (DPV), and a remarkable sensitivity of 4.29 μAμM−1cm−2 (CV) and 0.71 μAμM−1cm−2 (DPV), along with excellent performance in terms of selectivity, and reproducibility for CPN detection. Furthermore, the sensor demonstrated successful detection of CPN in pharmaceutical and natural matrices with satisfactory results. This proposed voltammetric sensor presents an inexpensive and promising approach for applications in monitoring pharmaceutical samples, with great opportunities for its miniaturization and detection in real samples. © 2025 Elsevier B.V.