Eco-friendly monitoring of triclosan as an emerging antimicrobial environmental contaminant utilizing electrochemical sensors modified with CNTs nanocomposite transducer layer

Environmental appearance of antimicrobials due to frequent use of personal care products as recommended by WHO can cause serious flare-up of antimicrobial resistance. In this work, three eco-friendly microfabricated copper solid-state sensors were developed for measuring triclosan in water. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes were incorporated in sensor 2 and 3 as hydrophobic conductive inner layer. Meanwhile, β-cyclodextrin was incorporated in sensor 3 as an ionophore for selective binding of TCS in presence of interfering compounds. The obtained linear responses of sensors 1, 2 and 3 were (1 × 10(− 8)–1 × 10(− 3) M), (1 × 10(− 9)–1 × 10(− 3) M) and (1 × 10(− 10)– 1 × 10(− 3) M), respectively. Limit of detection was 9.87 × 10(− 9) M, 9.62 × 10(− 10) M, and 9.94 × 10(− 11) M, respectively. The miniaturized sensors were utilized for monitoring of triclosan in water samples. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13065-023-01092-0.