Polyol-assisted synthesis of spinel-type magnesium cobalt oxide nanochains for voltammetric determination of the antipsychotic drug thioridazine

Abstract

In this work, a cost-effective, simple and scalable synthesis of nanostructured magnesium cobalt oxide (MgCo2O4) was presented by various methods. The structural morphology was evaluated by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Raman, Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Further, electrochemical measurements by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), cyclic voltammetry (CV), and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) revealed that the MgCo2O4-modified electrode showed good sensitivity (0.895 µA µM−1 cm−2), a wide linear range (0.5–1415.8 μM) and a relatively low detection limit (0.047 μM) towards the electrochemical determination of thioridazine (TZ, antipsychotic drug). Loading catalyst, pH, scan rate, and peak potential of TZ were optimized. The proposed sensor features excellent anti-interference ability, good cyclic stability, high reproducibility, and repeatability. The system has also been successfully applied for the detection of TZ in blood serum samples.