The extensive use of antibiotic drug (Nitrofurantoin; NFT) in pharmaceuticals and food producing animals may cause severe threats to both human health and animals. Besides, the residues of NFT can found or discharged into soil, rivers, lakes and local ground water can also cause serious health risks to living things. Therefore, rapid and highly selective detection as well as the removal of NFT from the foodstuff and water samples is very important concern. In the present study, we designed a novel 3D flower-like neodymium molybdate (Nd₂Mo₃O₉; NdM) catalyst by simple sol–gel route and evaluated for its bifunctional catalytic activity for the electrochemical detection and photodegradation of NFT for the first time. Moreover, the physicochemical properties of NdM were scrutinized by various analytical and spectroscopic techniques. The NdM modified screen printed carbon electrode (SPCE) showed an excellent electrocatalytic activity towards NFT with wide linear ranges (0.1–21 µM; 28–481 µM), lower detection limit (16 nM) and excellent selectivity in the existence of potentially co-interfering compounds (nitro group containing drugs; other nitro aromatic and biological compounds). Besides, the NdM modified SPCE was successfully applied to the real sample analysis in NFT oral suspension, water and urine samples, and the obtained recovery are well-satisfactory. Interestingly, the UV–visible spectroscopy results envisage that NdM could act as a superior photocatalyst which degrades above 99% of NFT solution under visible light irradiation. The trapping experiments revealed that hydroxyl radicals (OH) played the major role in the photodegradation process. These results suggested that the NdM is a more auspicious material for the degradation and determination of NFT, which creates it a novel and suitable candidate for the applications in electrocatalysis and photocatalysis.

抗生素药物（呋喃妥因； NFT）在制药和食品生产动物中的广泛使用可能对人类健康和动物造成严重威胁。此外，NFT的残留物可能会发现或排放到土壤，河流，湖泊和当地地下水中，也可能对生物造成严重的健康风险。因此，快速和高度选择性的检测以及从食品和水样品中去除NFT是非常重要的问题。在本研究中，我们设计了一种新颖的3D花状钼酸钕（Nd ₂ Mo ₃ O ₉; NdM）催化剂是通过简单的溶胶-凝胶路线进行的，并首次评估了其对NFT的电化学检测和光降解的双功能催化活性。此外，通过各种分析和光谱技术仔细检查了NdM的理化性质。NdM修饰的丝网印刷碳电极（SPCE）对NFT表现出优异的电催化活性，线性范围宽（0.1–21 µM； 28–481 µM），检测限较低（16 nM），并且在存在潜在的共电性时具有出色的选择性干扰化合物（含硝基的药物；其他硝基芳族和生物化合物）。此外，NdM修饰的SPCE已成功地应用于NFT口服混悬液，水和尿液样品的真实样品分析中，并且获得的回收率令人满意。有趣的是，紫外可见光谱结果表明，NdM可以作为一种优良的光催化剂，在可见光照射下，其降解率可超过NFT溶液的99％。诱捕实验表明，羟基自由基（OH）在光降解过程中起主要作用。这些结果表明，NdM是用于降解和测定NFT的更加吉祥的材料，这使其成为在电催化和光催化中应用的新颖且合适的候选者。