Ionic liquid-multi walled carbon nanotubes-l-lysine modified glassy carbon electrode for detection of prednisolone

Abstract

Prednisolone (PDN) is a corticosteroid drug that is used for treatment of a number of inflammatory conditions such as bronchial asthma and allergic reactions around the world. An overdose of PDN can cause adverse effects in the human body. Moreover, athletes in sports reportedly abuse it. Therefore, the development of analytical tools for PDN monitoring is vital. In this work, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)-Ionic liquid (IL)-l-lysine modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) sensor was developed for the determination of PDN using voltammetry technique. The IL based nanocomposites were characterized via scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infra-red (FT-IR) spectrometer, thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. Under optimized experimental conditions, the newly fabricated electrode exhibited remarkable electrochemical performance with LOD (limit of detection) and LOQ (limit of quantification) of 0.0214 μM and 0.3016 μM, respectively, for PDN detection. In addition, the developed electrode also displayed a superior selectivity for PDN in the presence of the interfering substances. The fabricated MWCNTs-ILs-l-lysine-GCE exhibited a remarkable stability where the electrode retained 89 % of its first peak-current response with an estimated relative standard deviation (RSD) of 1.72 % after 4 weeks storage. Furthermore, the reproducibility the fabricated electrode was acceptable with RSD value of 3.0% for ten repeated measurements (n = 10). The proposed MWCNTs-ILs-l-lysine-GCE sensor was successfully employed for determination of PDN in aspelone syrup sample via differential pulse voltammetry (DPV).