Copper nanostructures anchored on renewable carbon as electrochemical platform for the detection of dopamine, fluoxetine and escitalopram

Abstract

For the first time, renewable carbon (RC) from bamboo-biomass modified with copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) has been prepared via a chemical reduction step for the electroanalytical detection of dopamine (DOP), fluoxetine (FXT) and escitalopram (EST). The synthesized RC–CuNPs nanocomposite morphology and structural composition were characterized by FEG-SEM along with EDS analysis. The electroanalytical behavior of the target analytes was investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). The analytical range of detection of DOP, FXT, and EST was 0.05–5.0, 0.1–10, and 0.02–5.0 µmol L−1, respectively. The limits of detection (LOD) were found to be 0.04, 0.05, and 0.25 µmol L−1, respectively. In addition, the standard addition method was used for the detection and recovery of DOP in synthetic human urine and EST in tap water samples. The synergistic effect of CuNPs coupled with the highly porous RC material provided a sensitive, low-cost, and easy to prepare sensing platform for detecting target analytes in clinical and environmental samples.