A disposable metal-free electrochemical sensor uses a boron/nitrogen co-doped multi-walled carbon nanotubes electrocatalyst to determine the anticancer drug flutamide

Abstract

We devised a simple and disposable electrochemical flutamide sensor based on boron and nitrogen dual-doped acid-functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes on a screen-printed carbon electrode (B/N-CNT/SPCE). B/N-CNT, equipped with multiple functional groups,exhibited extraordinary electronic and structural properties for electrocatalytic performance. The synthesized nanomaterials were characterized by SEM, EDX, FTIR, and Raman spectroscopy. The electrochemical performance was examined by cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and differential pulse adsorptive stripping voltammetry (DPAdSV). The sensor exhibited a high sensitivity (8.71 μA μM−1 cm−2) with a dynamic linear of 0.06 – 700 µM and a low limit of detection (LOD) of 0.018 µM. For real-world applications, the fabricated sensor accurately determined FLT in human blood serum samples with recoveries ranging from 98 ± 3 – 105 ± 5 % and RSDs between 1.1 and 4.8 %. These results were compared with those of UV–Vis spectrophotometry. The recovery for the standard spectrophotometry was 98 ± 1 – 101 ± 5 %, with RSDs ranging from 0.2 – 5.4 %. No statistically significant differences were observed in the recovery rates between the methods used (p > 0.05). The precision, stability, and anti-interference properties of the sensor assured its suitability for detecting FLT in biological samples. Further, the synthesized nanocomposite offers promising potential for applications in other electrochemical sensing fields.