Fe (III) doped TiO2 nanoparticles prepared by high energy ball milling as booster for non-enzymatic, mediator-free and sensitive electrochemical sensor

Abstract

In this paper, pure and Fe (III) doped TiO2 nanoparticles were prepared in order to fabricate a nano sensor for electrochemical sensing of paracetamol. TiO2 nanoparticles as anatase phase were synthesized using a solvothermal method and doped with Fe (III) by mechanochemical planetary ball mill method. For structural and chemical characterization of the as-synthesized nanoparticles, techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were employed. XRD proved that the nanoparticles, after doping, consist of a mixture of anatase and brookite phases. The performance of the modified electrode was characterized with cyclic voltammetry, differential pulse-voltammetry techniques. The.Fe (III)TiO2/GCE modified electrode represents excellent electrocatalytic activity for paracetamol detection in phosphate buffer (pH = 7) solution, with a considerable enhancing of the peak current and decrease of overvoltage in comparison with the bare GCE. It poses a low limit of detection (LOD) and a good linear relationship. The nano sensor showed good sensitivity, selectivity, stability, reproducibility, and fast response. Furthermore, to demonstrate the rapid and convenient determination of paracetamol in pharmaceutical samples, this sensor has been successfully utilized in analyzing real samples, and satisfactory results have been achieved. The response of the nano sensor was linear over the paracetamol concentration range of 1.50–10.2 μM and 10.2–62 μM. The limit of detection (LOD) was calculated to be 0.52 μM (S/N = 3).