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Electrochemical sensors to quantify concentrations of emerging pollutants have attracted great attention from the industry and scientific community. Nanomaterials such as carbon black have been applied in sensors to identify substances that are toxic to the environment and human health due to their excellent electroanalytical properties. The aim of the study was to develop a novel electrochemical sensor for the endocrine disruptor hormone determination. To our knowledge, for the first time the synthesis of material based on carbon black containing immobilized palladium nanoparticles, with the application for the hormone ethinylestradiol, is reported in the literature. The material was synthesized, characterized, and applied to the determination in tap water and human urine of the synthetic hormone 17α‐ethinylestradiol (EE2), which is currently considered an emerging pollutant. The morphology, structure and electrochemical performance of the sensors were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and cyclic voltammetry (CV). Differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) in sodium phosphate buffer solution at pH 5.0 allowed the generation of a method to quantify the concentration of 17α‐ethinylestradiol in a linear range of 0.5–119.0 μmol L−1, obtaining 81.0 nmol L−1 of calculated limit of detection (LOD). The system was efficient in detecting 17α‐ethinylestradiol in real urine samples and showed no interferences for ascorbic acid, uric acid, progesterone, and dopamine. It is noteworthy that the results obtained showed good recovery values, considering that the urine samples were not previously treated or pre‐concentrated, which suggests the development of an electrochemical sensor that works in situ and in real time to monitor relevant substances in the control clinical and environmental, with the possibility of point‐of‐care analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports the development of a new sensor based on Printex L6 (CPL6) carbon black modified with copper oxides (CuO/Cu2O) nanoparticles and its application towards the determination of Propylparaben (PP). In fact, it is the first report of its kind in the literature. The sensor was produced through the dispersion of CPL6 in dimethylformamide on glassy carbon electrode surface followed by CuO/Cu2O electrodeposition. The conditions of electrodeposition investigated included time and solution concentration of Cu (II). Morphological, structural and electrochemical characterizations of the sensor were performed. Under optimal conditions, wide linear range (1.0 to 35.0 μmol L−1) was obtained in the detection of PP. The detection limit obtained was 0.46 μmol L−1 (S/N=3). The CuO/Cu2O‐CPL6/GCE sensor was found to be as sensitive as the high performance liquid chromatography in the determination of PP in both cosmetic and river water samples, in addition to being reproducible and stable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a simple and highly selective voltammetric method was developed for the simultaneous determination of paracetamol (PCT) and codeine (COD) in pharmaceuticals and human body fluids employing a glassy carbon electrode modified with carbon black (CB) and nickel oxide nanoparticles (NiONPs) within a dihexadecylphosphate (DHP) film. Using square-wave voltammetry (SWV), a separation of ca. 550 mV between the oxidation peak potentials of PCT and COD was obtained. The simultaneous determination of PCT and COD presented a linear concentration range from 3.0 to 47.8 µmol L−1 for PCT and from 0.83 to 38.3 µmol L−1 for COD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]