Ultrasensitive Indirect Electrochemical Sensing of Thiabendazole in Fruit and Water by the Anodic Stripping Voltammetry of Cu with Hierarchical TiCT-TiO for Signal Amplification

The development of effective electrochemical methods for the determination of pesticide residues is highly desirable for food safety requirements. Herein, a novel electrochemical sensing strategy for indirect detection of thiabendazole (TBZ) was achieved by monitoring the anodic stripping peak signal change of media Cu induced by a significant activity difference between active Cu and inactive Cu-TBZ complexes. In this sensing system, a heterostructured TiCT-TiO composite synthesized via a simple in-situ-oxidization strategy is used as the electrode material to boost the anodic stripping peak signal. After optimizing various conditions, the developed sensor presents satisfactory analytical performance for TBZ assay with a linear range from 0.3 to 100.0 nM and a limit of detection as low as 0.1 nM (S/N = 3). Furthermore, the proposed sensing platform also exhibits outstanding anti-interference, repeatability, and stability, which is effective for the determination of TBZ in fruit and water samples.