In situ Preparation of HNbMoO/C Nanocomposite for Sensitive Detection of Clenbuterol.

In this paper, we synthesized HNbMoO/C composite through the calcination of octylamine-intercalated HNbMoO precursor. The resulting HNbMoO/C composite showed some new phases of MoO, MoO, NbO, NbO, and carbon, which was fully confirmed via powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) technologies. Besides, the HNbMoO/C hybrid was coated on glass carbon electrode to construct an electrochemical sensor for sensitive determination of clenbuterol. The electrochemical behaviors of clenbuterol on the prepared electrode were tested by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) analysis. The results showed that the intercalated carbon can act as active sites to accelerate electron transfer. In addition, more exposed surface areas of the HNbMoO/C composite will facilitate the electrolyte to permeate. The oxidation peak current of clenbuterol was linearly related to its concentration in the range of 1.04 × 10 to 7.51 × 10 mol L, and the determination limit was calculated to be 3.03 × 10 mol L (S/N = 3). This sensor exhibits excellent stability, reproducibility, specificity, and good recoveries when applied to monitor clenbuterol in real samples.