Electrochemical detection of carbendazim in food and water samples using a pentapeptide-modified pencil graphite electrode

An electropolymerised pro-trp-arg-trp-trp-coated pencil graphite electrode for detecting the fungicide carbendazim was described in this work. The solid-phase peptide synthesis methodology was opted for PWW synthesis, and the synthesised peptide was characterised by proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, high-resolution mass spectrometry and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The electrochemical polymerisation of pro-trp-arg-trp-trp on a pencil graphite electrode was done by cyclic voltammetry. Under optimised experimental conditions, the electrochemical oxidation of carbendazim was observed at +0.7855 V by utilising differential pulse voltammetry. The oxidation current was linear with carbendazim concentration between 2–16 μM and 16–40 μM with an LOD of 0.24 μM. The recovery values attained after spiking the real samples with different concentrations of carbendazim were within the acceptable recovery range. Exceptional selectivity, admissible reproducibility and reasonable stability of the sensor are unquestionably employed for identifying carbendazim in fruit juices, soil and water samples.