An effective morphology controlled hydrothermal synthesis of Bi₂WO₆ and its application in riboflavin electrochemical sensor

Considerations attest to the growing importance of riboflavin in food, biological, and pharmaceutical fields, accurately detecting its content is of great significance for guiding nutritional health, diagnosis/treatment of related diseases, pharmacological research, and supervision of food/drug quality. Bismuth tungstate (Bi₂WO₆) has been prepared with varied morphologies and exposed as capable electrode material for Riboflavin (RF) electrochemical sensors. Variation in the morphology was achieved by the assistance of PVP, NaOH, and ternary solvent mixture that served as a capping agent, etchant, and soft template, correspondingly. Different physicochemical characterization and electrochemical techniques revealed the variation between the prepared Bi₂WO₆. Bi₂WO₆ with PVP + NaOH possesses an excellent redox performance and could be attributed to the effect of hollow spheres acting as a permitting tunnel for electrons and ions to enter its structure. The electrode material Bi₂WO₆ (PVP + NaOH)/GCE was exposed to Differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) towards electro-oxidation and reduction of RF. In both phases of detection, the concentration used was 0.03–457 µM, whereas the LOD and sensitivity are being 3.65 nM and 1.14 µA µM⁻¹ cm⁻² for reduction and 8.9 nM and 0.95 µA µM⁻¹ cm⁻² for oxidation responses, respectively. Moreover, recovery results with real samples are excellent and thus, validate excellent electro analytical redox performances.