The analysis of pharmaceutical
active ingredients plays an important
role in quality control and clinical trials because they have a significant
physiological effect on the human body even at low concentrations.
Herein, a flexible three-electrode system using laser-scribed graphene
(LSG) technology, which consists of Nafion/Fe
3
O
4
nanohybrids immobilized on LSG as the working electrode and LSG
counter and reference electrodes on a single polyimide film, is presented.
A Nafion/Fe
3
O
4
/LSG electrode is constructed
by drop coating a solution of Nafion/Fe
3
O
4
,
which is electrostatically self-assembled between positively charged
Fe
3
O
4
and negatively charged Nafion on the LSG
electrode and is used for the first time to determine a neurotoxicity
drug (clioquinol; CQL) in biological samples. Owing to their porous
3D structure, an enriched surface area at the active edges and polar
groups (OH, COOH, and −SO
3
H) in Nafion/Fe
3
O
4
/LSG electrodes resulted in excellent wettability to
facilitate electrolyte diffusion, which gave ∼twofold enhancement
in electrocatalytic activity over LSG electrodes. The experimental
parameters affecting the analytical performance were investigated.
The quantification of clioquinol on the Nafion/Fe
3
O
4
/LSG electrode surface was examined using differential pulse
voltammetry and chronoamperometry techniques. The fabricated sensor
displays preferable sensitivity (17.4 μA μM
–1
cm
–2
), a wide linear range (1 nM to 100 μM),
a very low detection limit (0.73 nM), and acceptable selectivity toward
quantitative analysis of CQL. Furthermore, the reliability of the
sensor was checked by CQL detection in spiked human blood serum and
urine samples, and satisfactory recoveries were obtained.