Development of a novel photosensing method for the detection of ciprofloxacin residues in athlete's biological samples.

Over the past few years, the elimination of pharmaceuticals from polluted water has been a major challenge for many researchers. The presented project reports the photoelectrochemical (PEC) detection of ciprofloxacin (CIP) by using a BiVO 4 thin layer prepared by a facile spin coat method on an Indium doped tin oxide (ITO) glass as photoanode. The mesoporous nanostructure of the fabricated photoanodes was characterized with UV–vis diffusion transmission spectra, Tauc plot, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, Mott-Schottky diagram, and chronoamperometry analysis. After optimizing some of the key factors affecting current response of the photoanode, the PEC detection results showed that the BiVO 4 thin-layer photoanode had high and stable photocurrent responses for CIP under UV-Vis light irradiation. Furthermore, the fabricated PEC sensor displayed two wide-spreading linear detection ranges from 0.05 to 100 nM and 100–5700 nM with very low detection limits (LOD) of 0.016 nM. Furthermore, the interferences evaluation demonstrated excellent selectivity of the PEC sensor toward CIP molecules in the presence of other interfering species in solution. Therefore, the marked performance of this photoelectrode in the PEC detection of CIP, extraordinary stability, and admirable reproducibility suggests its potential as a photoanode for the pharmaceutical pollutant oxidation including various antibiotics in wastewater. • Synthesized BiVO 4 material exhibited excellent PEC activity. • ITO/BiVO 4 was successfully applied for the PEC sensing of CIP residues. • This PEC sensor presented excellent performance than another PEC sensor. • The application of sensor was studied in athlete's biological samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]