An enhanced electrochemical performance of in milk, pigeon meat and eggs samples using se nanorods capped with Co₃O₄ nanoflowers decorated on graphene oxide

In this work, we report a novel preparation of selenium nanorods (Se) doped cobalt oxide (Co₃O₄) nanoflowers encapsulated with graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposite (NC). Se nanorods were successfully decorated on Co₃O₄ nanoflowers and an increase in electrical conductivity was observed in Se-Co₃O₄@GO-NC. The as-prepared Se-Co₃O₄@GO-NC was utilized as an effective nanocomposite for the electrochemical detection of dimetridazole (DMZ) for the first time in the field of electrochemical sensors. Se-Co₃O₄@GO-NC modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) which showed an excellent cathodic current response (17.6 μA) at the lower potential at -0.7314 V upon DMZ sensing. With the various optimized conditions, Se-Co₃O₄@GO-NC based electrochemical sensor displayed a lengthy linear range of 0.02-83.72 μM, limit of detection 3.4 nM and sensitivity of 1.898 μA.μM^-1. cm^-2 for DMZ detection. In addition, Se-Co₃O₄@GO-NC revealed fabulous catalytic reduction activity for DMZ, when compared to GO and Se-Co₃O₄ modified GCE. Additionally, Se-Co₃O₄@GO-NC is applied in real sample analysis of pigeon egg, milk and pigeon meat. The results illustrated that Se-Co₃O₄@GO-NC can be a promising nanocomposite for the electrocatalytic reduction of DMZ in clinical samples in biomedical field.