Mixture of carbon aerogel with Pd-WO3 nanorods for amperometric determination of mesalazine.

ABSTRACT

We prepared, for the first time, carbon aerogels support on Pd-WO3 nanorods (CAs/Pd-WO3) hybrid nanocomposite via sol-gel and microwave-assisted methods. The as-prepared CAs/Pd-WO3-modified electrode was used as effective electrocatalyst for nanomolar level detection of mesalazine (MSA). The typical porous nature of carbon aerogels effectively prevented the aggregation of Pd-doped WO3 nanorods and increased the electrochemically active surface area. In addition, the Pd-WO3 nanointerface provides intrinsic improvement of the electrocatalytic activity and stability for the electrochemical oxidation process, and the interconnected conducting network of the porous surfaces of CAs accelerated rapid electron transport at the working electrode. The synergistic effect of the CAs/Pd-WO3 architecture has excellent electrocatalytic activity for the detection of MSA with high sensitivity of 2.403 ± 0.004 µA µM-1 cm-2, low detection limit of 0.8 ± 0.3 nM and wide linear response from 0.003-350 µM at a low applied potential of 0.30 V vs. Ag|AgCl. Satisfactory results were observed for its analytical performance in detecting MSA in human blood serum and urine samples, and recoveries ranged from 98.8 to 100.4%. We believe that the architecture of the modified CAs/Pd-WO3 electrocatalysts can be effectively used in clinical applications for the detection of MSA.