Facile synthesis of tantalum decorated on iron selenide with nitrogen-doped graphene hybrid for the sensitive detection of trolox in berries: Density functional theory interpretation.

This work presents a hydrothermal method followed by a sonochemical treatment for synthesizing tantalum decorated on iron selenide (Ta/FeSe2) integrated with nitrogen-doped graphene (NGR) as a susceptible electrode material for detecting trolox (TRX) in berries samples. The surface morphology, structural characterizations, and electrochemical performances of the synthesized Ta/FeSe2/NGR composite were analyzed via spectrophotometric and voltammetry techniques. The GCE modified with Ta/FeSe2/NGR demonstrated an impressive linear range of 0.1 to 580.3 µM for TRX detection. Additionally, it achieved a remarkable limit of detection (LOD) of 0.059 µM, and it shows a high sensitivity of 2.266 µA µÐœ-1 cm-2. Here, we used density functional theory (DFT) to investigate the structures of TRX and TRX quinone and the locations of energy levels and electron transfer sites. The developed sensor exhibits significant selectivity, satisfactory cyclic and storage stability, and notable reproducibility. Moreover, the practicality of TRX was assessed in different types of berries, yielding satisfactory recoveries.