Tailoring heterointerface with Nb₂O₅/NbN/NbC on nitrogen-doped carbon for the sensitive electrochemical detection of carbofuran

The heterointerface is a promising strategy to improve the sensitivity of the rotating ring disc electrode (RRDE) for effective sensing performance. Herein, we designed and prepared the heterointerface of niobium oxide, niobium nitride and niobium carbide impregnated into the nitrogen-doped carbon (denoted as Nb₂O₅/NbN/NbC@NC) catalyst through the single-step pyrolysis technique for the electrochemical detection of carbofuran (CF). The heterointerface enhances the sensitivity with its active sites, where the NC increases the rate of charge transfer in the detection performance. This strategy achieves the sensitivity of 0.01436, 0.01485, 0.00925, 0.01491, 0.01462, 0.01505, and 0.01542 µA µM⁻¹ cm⁻² in phosphate buffer solution, beans, carrot, potato, rice, pond Water, and soil samples with the limit of detection of 96.75, 75.42, 118.5, 38.56, 29.55, 71.89, and 52.85 nM is comparably lower than unmodified RRDE. It meets the requirement of real-time sensors with its exceptional results in repeatability, reproducibility, and storage stability tests. This work provides a simple strategy to synthesis heterointerface rich electrocatalyst for sensitive electrochemical detection performance of CF in food samples.