A novel electrochemical sensor for sensitive detection of carbendazim based on zeolitic-imidazolate-framework-67/carbon nanohorns nanocomposite

Herein, the zeolitic-imidazolate-framework-67/carbon nanohorns (ZIF-67/CNHs) nanocomposite was synthesized by an efficient method under mild conditions, which was applied for carbendazim (CBZ) detection. ZIF-67 with adsorption capacity of CBZ was employed as the support of proposed sensor. CNHs with excellent conductivity and large specific surface area (SSA) not only compensated the poor conductivity of ZIF-67 but also improved the SSA. The functional groups of ZIF-67 and CNHs could form hydrogen bonding, thereby reducing the aggregation of CNHs. The synergistic effect of CNHs and ZIF-67 significantly enhanced the conductivity and SSA of ZIF-67, reduced the aggregation of CNHs, and thus improved its catalytic ability towards CBZ. Based on superior characteristics of the ZIF-67/CNHs nanocomposite, the proposed sensor exhibited a low limit of detection (LOD) of 1 ng mL-1 with wide linear range of 3–3000 ng mL-1. Moreover, the proposed sensor demonstrated good selectivity, superior reproducibility, and satisfactory applicability in real samples analysis.