Electrochemically Activated Screen-Printed Carbon Sensor Modified with Anionic Surfactant (aSPCE/SDS) for Simultaneous Determination of Paracetamol, Diclofenac and Tramadol

Abstract

In this work, an electrochemically activated screen-printed carbon electrode modified with sodium dodecyl sulfate (aSPCE/SDS) was proposed for the simultaneous determination of paracetamol (PA), diclofenac (DF), and tramadol (TR). Changes of surface morphology and electrochemical behaviour of the electrode after the electrochemical activation with H2O2 and SDS surface modification were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), cyclic voltammetry (CV), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The influence of various parameters on the responses of the aSPCE/SDS such as pH and concentration of the buffer, SDS concentration, and techniques parameters were investigated. Using optimised conditions (Eacc. of −0.4 V, tacc. of 120 s, ΔEA of 150 mV, ν of 250 mV s−1, and tm of 10 ms), the aSPCE/SDS showed a good linear response in the concentration ranges of 5.0 × 10−8–2.0 × 10−5 for PA, 1.0 × 10−9–2.0 × 10−7 for DF, and 1.0 × 10−8–2.0 × 10−7 and 2.0 × 10−7–2.0 × 10−6 mol L−1 for TR. The limits of detection obtained during the simultaneous determination of PA, DF, and TR are 1.49 × 10−8 mol L−1, 2.10 × 10−10 mol L−1, and 1.71 × 10−9 mol L−1, respectively. The selectivity of the aSPCE/SDS was evaluated by examination of the impact of some inorganic and organic substances that are commonly present in environmental and biological samples on the responses of PA, DF, and TR. Finally, the differential pulse adsorptive stripping voltammetric (DPAdSV) procedure using the aSPCE/SDS was successfully applied for the determination of PA, DF, and TR in river water and serum samples as well as pharmaceuticals.

Screen-Printed Voltammetric Sensors—Tools for Environmental Water Monitoring of Painkillers

“…Diclofenac (DF), ibuprofen (IB), acetylsalicylic acid (AS), naproxen (NP) and ketoprofen (KP) belong to the NSAIDs ( Figure 2 A–E). Diclofenac exhibits activities characteristic of this group of drugs, i.e., anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, analgesic, and inhibiting platelet aggregation [ 82 , 83 ]. It is used to relieve symptoms of many illnesses, including non-articular rheumatism, osteoarthritis, sports injuries, and rheumatoid arthritis.…”

“…It has no anti-inflammatory effect. PA is the main ingredient in many cold and flu medications [ 82 ]. The antipyretic effect of this drug is related to the inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis in the central nervous system [ 83 ].…”

“…The antipyretic effect of this drug is related to the inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis in the central nervous system [ 83 ]. An overdose of PA may result in the accumulation of toxic metabolites that can cause acute and sometimes fatal nephro- and hepatotoxicity [ 82 ]. As a widely used pharmaceutical, PA is present in the environment, its concentration found in environmental water samples ranges from 1 to 10 nM.…”

“…In the literature are few articles describing the use of screen-printed sensors in the monitoring of painkillers residues (DF, PA, IB, and TR) in environmental waters samples [ 82 , 83 , 98 , 99 , 100 , 101 , 102 , 103 , 104 ]. These sensors have also found application in the determination of painkillers in pharmaceutical preparations and biological samples, e.g., urine and serum [ 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 96 , 97 , 105 , 106 , 107 , 108 , 109 , 110 , 111 , 112 , 113 ].…”

“…In paper [ 82 ], Kozak et al proposed an electrochemically activated (25 voltammetric cycles from 1.0 to −0.7 V at a scan rate of 10 mV s −1 in a solution containing 0.1 M acetate buffer of pH = 4.0 ± 0.1 and 10 mM H 2 O 2 ) screen-printed carbon electrode modified with sodium dodecyl sulfate (aSPCE/SDS) for the simultaneous determination of paracetamol, diclofenac, and tramadol. At the moment, there is the first paper describing the voltammetric procedure of tramadol determination with the use of screen-printed electrodes in environmental water samples [ 82 ]. The electrochemical activation contributes to the removal of the organic ink constituents or contaminants introduced into the printing stage, which consequently changes the morphology of the electrode surface and reduces the charge transfer resistance.…”