Multi-heterojunction CuO-WO3-ZnO/g-C3N4 nanohybrid for ultrasensitive electrochemical monitoring of losartan and visible light-assisted dye degradation.

Abstract

This work reports the development of a multi-heterojunction CuO-WO3-ZnO/g-C3N4 nanohybrid as a multifunctional platform for visible-light-activated photocatalytic degradation of crystal violet dye and electrochemical sensing of the losartan. The CuO-WO3-ZnO/g-C3N4 nanohybrid was synthesized successfully and characterized systematically for its structural, optical, photocatalytic, and electrochemical properties. The CuO-WO3-ZnO/g-C3N4 nanohybrid demonstrated enhanced photocatalytic activity under visible light illumination towards the degradation of crystal violet dye, which was mainly due to enhanced visible light absorption, good interfacial charge separation, and fast charge transport between the heterojunction interfaces. The CuO-WO3-ZnO/g-C3N4-modified glassy carbon electrode exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity towards losartan drug, which displayed an extremely low detection limit, a large linear response range, excellent reproducibility, repeatability, and stability, and high selectivity. In particular, the nanohybrid achieved approximately 97% degradation of crystal violet within 35 min, with a pseudo-first-order rate constant of 7.24 × 10⁻2 min⁻1. In addition, the developed electrochemical sensor exhibited a limit of detection (LOD) of 5.7591 × 10-8 M for losartan. The strong synergistic effect of CuO, WO3, ZnO, and g-C3N4 is confirmed by the increased charge migration rate and the availability of a high number of electrochemically and photocatalytically active sites, which leads to the enhanced performance of the multi-heterojunction nanohybrid for environmental monitoring and remediation of organic pollutants.

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