Application of molecularly imprinted polymer and ZnO nanoparticles as a novel electrochemical sensor for tartrazine determination

Tartrazine (Tz) is one of the synthetic dyes used in food that should be monitored and controlled due to its toxicity and pathogenicity. For this purpose, we have built an ultrasensitive electrochemical sensor to measure and determine Tz. In the first step, a carbon paste electrode (CPE) was modified with zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles and in the next step, Tz was used as a template during poly-arginine (PArg) electropolymerization via the cyclic voltammetry method. The reason for using ZnO nanoparticles is to increase the number of imprint sites per unit surface area of the electrode. To characterize the ZnO/MIP-PArg these techniques were used: FE-SEM, HR-TEM, ATR-FTIR, AFM, and EIS. DPV results showed two linear response ranges 0.008–0.112 µM and 0.25–5.0 µM with a low detection limit of 2.7 nM (S/N = 3). Also, the built-in sensor was used to determine Tz in orange jelly powder and soft drinks and the results were satisfactory.