Synthesis and characterization of vanadium ferrites, electrochemical sensing of acetaminophen in biological fluids and pharmaceutical samples

Abstract

This study is aimed to synthesize and characterize spinel vanadium nano-ferrite (VFe2O4) for the electrochemical sensing of acetaminophen (Ac) in pharmaceutical and biological samples. The VFe2O4 was synthesized by hydrothermal method followed by characterization of structural, magnetic, and electrochemical properties. The XRD and SEM analysis confirmed the cubic single-phase spinel crystalline structure and irregular shaped VFe2O4 micro-grains respectively. The VFe2O4 exhibited excellent superparamagnetic properties with a low value of coercivity. The VFe2O4 coated on the glassy carbon electrode (GCE) surface by drop costing method for the fabrication of the VFe2O4/GCE. The oxidative peak at a lower potential onto the surface of VFe2O4/GCE confirmed its modification for the electrocatalytic oxidative sensing of Ac. The proposed electrochemical method was optimized for quantitative sensing of Ac followed by the linear response (R2 = 0.9897) with limits of detection and quantification as 8.20 and 27.5 nM, respectively. Interference studies of possible competing species (glucose, ascorbic acid, uric acid, fructose, glycine, alanine, naproxen, and methocarbamol) proved the selectivity of the proposed method. The proposed VFe2O4/GCE was successfully utilized for quantitative routine sensing of Ac in the biological fluids and pharmaceutical samples (recovery of Ac > 98.0% and relative standard deviation < 2.0%).