A relative study on sonochemically synthesized mesoporous WS nanorods & hydrothermally synthesized WS nanoballs towards electrochemical sensing of psychoactive drug (Clonazepam).

In this paper, mesoporous tungsten sulfide electrocatalyst (MP-WS) were developed through a facile sonochemical technique (SC) and utilized as an electrocatalyst for the sensitive electrochemical detection of Psychoactive drug. The as-prepared SC-MP-WS NRs and HT-WS NPs (hydrothermally synthesized) were characterized using XRD, Raman, XPS, FESEM, HRTEM, BET, EDX, and electrochemical analysis, which exposed the formation of WS in the form of mesoporous nanorods in shape. Further, the use of the as-developed SC-MP-WS NRs and HT-WS NPs as an electrocatalyst for the detection of clonazepam (CNP). Interestingly, the SC-MP-WS NRs modified screen-printed carbon electrode (SC-MP-WS NRs/SPCE) exhibited an excellent electrocatalytic performance, and enhanced reduction peak current when compared to HT-WS NPs with unmodified electrode. Moreover, as-prepared SC-MP-WS NRs/SPCE displayed wide linear response range (10-551 µM), lower detection limit (2.37 nM) and high sensitivity (24.32 µAµMcm). Furthermore, SC-MP-WS NRs/SPCE showed an excellent selectivity even in the existence of potentially co-interfering compounds. The proposed sensor was successfully applied for the determination of CNP in biological and drug samples with acceptable recovery.