Signal Amplification Based on a Polymeric Film Decorated With Nanocomposites for Sensitive Determination of Propranolol in Biological and Pharmaceutical Samples

Abstract

Hypertension is a serious medical condition and can increase the risk of heart, brain, kidney and other diseases. Propranolol is the first-line therapeutic choice for hypertension. It is of great significance to construct a sensitive method for the detection of propranolol in real samples. In the present study, an efficient electrochemical sensor was developed based on electro polymerization of aspartic acid on a glassy carbon electrode modified with a nano composite consisting of multiwalled carbon nanotubes, zinc oxide nanoparticles and sodium dodecyl sulfate. The morphology and electroanalytical performance of the proposed sensor were characterized with scanning electron microscopy, cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry. Comparing the achieved results at unmodified glassy carbon electrode, it was observed that the proposed sensor showed a significant electrocatalytic activity toward propranolol oxidation. Under optimal conditions, the fabricated sensor exhibited a linear response over the propranolol concentration range of 0.75 to <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$40~\mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula> mol L <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">−1</sup> and provided a limit of detection of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.19~\mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula> mol L <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">−1</sup> . Finally, the performance of the proposed sensor was explored for propranolol determination in pharmaceutical formulations, human serum, and urine samples. The results confirmed that the sensor is applicable to measure propranolol in the real sample.