Fabrication and Evaluation of a Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Electrochemical Nanosensor for the Sensitive Monitoring of Phenobarbital in Biological Samples

Abstract

The present paper describes the preparation of a novel composite included the phenobarbital imprinted polymer of aniline (PB-MIP-PANI) and the layered graphene oxide (GO). The process involved the precipitation-polymerization of the functional monomer by using ammonium persulfate as an initiator. FT-IR, TGA, EDX, and FE-SEM techniques were used for the characterization of the prepared composite (PB-MIP-PANI/GO). The PB-MIP-PANI/GO composite was used to modify the carbon paste electrode for fabricating a selective and sensitive PB sensor. The electrochemical behavior of the designed sensor as a function of sample solution pH, PB concentration, and the applied potential scan rate was investigated by the cyclic voltammetry technique. Under the optimized experimental conditions, the oxidation peak current varies linearly (R2 = 0.988) with the concentration of PB, in the range of 10-100 mg L-1 with a detection limit of 7.8 mg L-1. The fabricated sensor was used for precise determination of PB in pharmaceutical, blood and urine samples. The validity of the results was checked by independent analysis using GC-MS technique.