Enhanced the electrocatalytic performance of cobalt ferrite by nickel doping; application in the electrochemical determination of Tinidazole

Cobalt ferrite is a well-known compound that it’s catalytic and electrocatalytic properties are clear. The electrochemical and electrocatalytic properties of cobalt ferrite can be improved by doping metals ions such as nickel ions. In this work the hydrothermal method was used for synthesis of nickel doped cobalt ferrite (NixCo1-xFe2O4) nanoparticles. To prepare cobalt ferrite, all the above steps were repeated except that nickel nitrate was not added to the solution. Synthesized nickel doped cobalt ferrite nanoparticles have a uniform shape and their size is estimated to be around 40 nm. Synthesized nanoparticles have magnetic properties and different methods were used to characterization of them. The morphology structure and electrochemical properties of prepared magnetic nanoparticles were investigated by Xray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS), elemental mapping, FT-IR spectroscopy and Differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) techniques. An electrochemical sensor was fabricated using the prepared nanoparticles as modifier. Glassy carbon electrode modified with the NixCo1-xFe2O4 was used for electrocatalytic determination of Tinidazole in some real samples such as pharmaceuticals and human serum. The linear range for the detection of Tinidazole was 0.48~ 215 μM, and the detection limit was 0.11 μM with a sensitivity of 1.39 μA.μM-1.cm-2 by differential pulse voltammetry. The sensor has good selectivity, stability, reproducibility and can be used for actual sample testing.