Voltammetric sensor for indole-3-lactic acid determination featuring N-doped core-shell Ir@Mo@Ni aerogels on screen printed carbon electrode

Abstract

The excessive consumption of liquor accounts for 5.3% annual death and indole-3-lactic acid has been identified as a possible biomarker for mentally disorder patients arising from alcohol abuse. A highly sensitive and selective voltammetric sensing platform is proposed composed of N-doped core-shell Ir@Mo@Ni aerogel prepared via a facile in situ spontaneous gelation route using one-step NaBH4 reduction technique anchored on a cost-effective screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) for determination of indole-3-lactic acid (ILA) levels in buffer and serum. Prior to the analytical phase, the composite (N-Ir@Mo@Ni/SPCE) was thoroughly characterized, and different methods were used to investigate the electrochemical properties. The combination of tri-metallics resulted in improved sensing capacities in the linear range from 0.01–20µM, with sensitivity and limits of detection of 0.162 μA/μM and 7.2nM, respectively, towards ILA determination. Furthermore, the developed sensing platform was utilized for the analyses of ILA in human normal and alcohol use disorder patients’ serum samples. Liquid chromatography in tandem with mass spectrometry was equally used to quantify ILA levels in the serum samples and the results of both methods were compared.