A sensitive electrochemical sensor based on wrinkled mesoporous carbon nanomaterials for rapid and reliable assay of 17β-estradiol

Abstract

In this study, we establish a sensitive and reusable electrochemical sensor for assay of 17β-estradiol (17β-E2) based on wrinkled mesoporous carbon (wMC) nanomaterials. wMC was synthesized by using the wrinkled silicon nanoparticle (wSiO2NP) as supporting and sacrificial hard template, which formed a hollow nanocage-like structure. Such a carbon-based composite structure endows rich accessible active sites, large specific surface area and high electrocatalytic activity. High performance electrochemical sensor based on the wMC modified electrodes has been achieved for various assays, presenting excellent reusability by a simple regeneration treatment for removal of fouling (phenolic compounds) in tetrabutyl ammonium hexafluorate (TAH)-acetone solution. For 17β-E2 assay, the linear response in the ranges of 0.05–10.0 μM and 10.0–80.0 μM have been achieved with the detection limit of 8.3 nM (S/N = 3). This sensor has also been successfully applied for the determination of 17β-E2 in the milk and real water samples, exhibiting comparable results measured using a high-performance liquid chromatography. This sensor presents high sensitivity, selectivity, reproducibility, and especially the validated recoverability, showing high potential for endocrine disrupting chemical assay.