Porous silicon-mesoporous carbon nanocomposite based electrochemical sensor for sensitive and selective detection of ascorbic acid in real samples

Abstract

Ascorbic acid (AA) is one of the vital water-soluble antioxidants in blood serum and can function as a key blood serum biomarker for oxidative stress. Therefore, we have developed a highly sensitive and selective AA electrochemical sensor based on novel porous silicon-mesoporous carbon nanocomposites (PSi-MC NCs) modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE). The structural properties and morphological investigation of the PSi-MC NCs were systematically studied by different techniques. This newly designed PSi-MC/GCE-based non-enzymatic electrochemical sensor can measure an extremely wide range of AA (0.5–2473 μM) in phosphate buffer solution (PBS) with a sensitivity 0.1982 μAμM−1cm−2 and a logical limit of detection (LOD) 30.0±0.1 nM. The proposed AA sensor was also applied to detect possible interference from common interfering substances that are present in human blood, showing highly selective performance. The proposed AA sensor also showed highly acceptable results towards the detection of AA levels in human blood serum and vitamin C tablets. This new combination of active material PSi-MC NCs provided steady, excellent reproducibility, repeatability, and long-term stability.