Chemosphere 288 (2022) 132511 Available online 21 October 2021 0045-6535/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. High-performance electrochemical sensing of hazardous pesticide Paraoxon using BiVO 4 nano dendrites equipped catalytic strips Praveen Kumar Gopi a , Duy Ba Ngo b , Shen-Ming Chen a, * , Chandan Hunsur Ravikumar d, e , Werasak Surareungchai b, c, ** a Electroanalysis and Bioelectrochemistry Lab, Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, National Taipei University of Technology, No.1, Section 3, Chung- Hsiao East Road, Taipei, 106, Taiwan, ROC b School of Bio Resources and Technology, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), Bangkok, 10150, Thailand c Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Program, KMUTT, Bangkok, 10140, Thailand d Centre for Nano and Material Sciences, Jain Global Campus, Jain University, Jakkasandra Post, Ramanagaram Dist, 562112, India e Pilot Plant Development and Training Institute, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bankhuntien-Chaitalay Road, Thakam, Bangkok, 10150, Thailand HIGHLIGHTS G R A P H I C A L ABSTRACT • BiVO 4 was hydrothermally prepared and characterized. • Flexible catalytic strip prepared. • BiVO 4 /flexible SPCE to detect Paraoxon with LOD 0.03 μM and sensitivity 0.345 μA μM  1 cm  2 . • It shows excellent stability, selectivity and responded well in real sample. A R T I C L E INFO Handling Editor: Chin Cheng Keywords: BiVO 4 Hazardous pesticide Electrochemical sensing Nano dendrites Flexible strips Paraoxon ABSTRACT Paraoxon is one of the pesticide that can induce toxicity to nervous system of living organisms. In this work, we focused on synthesizing the catalyst Bismuth Vanadate with the properties that can sense the presence of organophosphorus compounds and characterized them with various characterization methods. The structural studies done by XRD, UV spectroscopy and FTIR spectroscopy. Morphological studies were carried by SEM and TEM. Elemental analysis using XPS spectra. The proposed electrocatalyst was successfully applied as the active electrode material modifying the screen printed carbon electrode for electrochemical sensor applications. The results of the studies indicate that bismuth vanadate modified electrode exhibited four electron transfer process for reduction of nitro group and this lead to the superior electrochemical sensing performance for ethyl Paraoxon with a detection limit of 0.03 μM and good sensitivity 0.345 μA μM  1 cm  2 with excellent reproducibility, repeatability, stability and selectivity over common interferents. Furthermore, the practical application was successfully carried using the proposed modified strips to determine Paraoxon presence in the river water sample with satisfactory results. This proposed catalyst can act as a desirable candidate for the rapid electrochemical sensor. * Corresponding author. ** Corresponding author. School of Bio resources and Technology, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), Bangkok, 10150, Thailand. E-mail address: smchen78@ms15.hinet.net (S.-M. Chen). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Chemosphere journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/chemosphere https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.132511 Received 2 March 2021; Received in revised form 1 October 2021; Accepted 6 October 2021