Electrochemical copper oxide nanoparticles-based sensor for butachlor plus propanil herbicide detection

Butachlor plus Propanil (Daramox) herbicide has been frequently used in agriculture over the world for controlling weeds in the agriculture field. However, the Daramox is a very harmful chemical that can affect to human health including urinary metabolites, liver, kidneys, respiratory system, heart to death. Thus, a fast detection of Daramox is still important. In this work, we have synthesized the sensing material [copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO-NPs)] and developed the electrochemical sensor to detect the Daramox. Two copper (Cu) wires were used in a sparking process to directly create the CuO-NPs. The electrochemical sensor was fabricated based on a simple drop-casting of the synthesized CuO-NPs in deionized water onto the surface of a screen-printed electrode (SPE). Under optimized experimental conditions, the CuO-NPs/SPE sensor shows a good linear range (1 to 5 mM), a sensitivity of 5.32 µA mM⁻¹ cm⁻², and a low limit of detection of 0.05 mM for Daramox detection at room temperature.