A surface-modified silicon carbide nanoparticles based electrochemical sensor for free interferences determination of caffeine in tea and coffee

Highlights: • A novel surface-modified silicon carbide nanoparticle has been developed as a sensing material. • The proposed sensing material shows extreme catalytic activity and low overpotential toward caffeine electrooxidation. • The proposed sensor is sensitive and selective then can be used to determine caffeine in real samples. In this work, the surface-modified silicon carbide nanoparticles (SiC-NPs) were used as a sensing material for the determination of caffeine. The [Cu(pydc) (apym)]₂ loaded on the surface of functionalized SiC-NPs. The mixture of SiC-NPs/[Cu(pydc)(apym)]₂ and graphene nanosheets used as a new electrode material. Cyclic Voltammetry technique used to study the electrochemical behavior of the GC/Gr/SiC-NPs/[Cu(pydc)(apym)]₂ modified electrode. The GC/Gr/SiC-NPs/[Cu(pydc)(apym)]₂ modified electrode shows excellent electrocatalytic activity toward caffeine oxidation and dramatically reduce the oxidation overpotential. The typical amperometry method is used to evaluate the performance of the sensing material for the determination of caffeine. Under optimum conditions, the detection limit and sensitivity were obtained, 0.313 µM and of 134.1 μA/nM⁻¹, respectively. The performance of the designed sensor was evaluated by the successful determination of caffeine in commercial tea and coffee.