An ultrasensitive electrochemical sensing platform for rapid detection of rutin with a hybridized 2D-1D MXene-FeWO4 nanocomposite

Abstract Coaxial fibers with ultra-thin two-dimensional (2D) structures (MXenes) provide promising advantages in biomedical applications. Here, a ternary structure of the MXene-FeWO4 heterostructure was synthesized by electrospinning FeWO4 bimetallic nanofibers followed by surface tagging on delaminated single-layered Ti3C2Tx MXenes. An electroactive interconnecting network of single-layered MXene with mixed metal-oxide fibers with high defective edge/plane sites exhibited significant electrocatalytic properties for rutin (RT) oxidation. Our findings highlighted the superior performance of the proposed material compared to bare glassy carbon electrodes (GCE), as well as WO3-GCE, FeWO4-GCE, MXene-GCE, and MXene-WO3-GCE electrodes in terms of overpotential and anodic peak intensity. Volumetric studies of the fabricated MXene-FeWO4 nanocomposite indicated an ultralow detection limit of 0.42 nM, an ultrawide linear determination range of 4–147 nM, and a high sensitivity of 0.3799 μA nM−1 cm−2. The MXene-FeWO4 nanocomposite also exhibited satisfactory stability and persistent anti-interference ability, as demonstrated by electrochemical characterization. Additionally, the MXene-FeWO4-GCE nanocomposite exhibited satisfactory recoveries when applied to detect RT in human serum, orange juice, and black tea samples. The developed sensor exhibited excellent RT selectivity and anti-interference ability compared to other interfering bioanalytes encountered in the present study. Therefore, our study provides the basis for the design of a hybrid composite network, thus opening exciting avenues for the development of high-performance electrochemical sensors in the biomedical and clinical fields.