Highly dispersed Cu and Ni nano cluster sensor for ultrasensitive electrochemical detection of antiviral drug lamivudine.

The accurate and rapid detection for the nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor lamivudine (LAM, 3TC) in cellular systems is always a challenge in the clinic application. Here, a sensitive Cu and Ni nano cluster sensor for LAM is generated under hydrothermal conditions.The Cu and Ni atoms are highly dispersed and aggregated in the nanosized opening pore windows of the synthesized LTA zeolite, through the diatomic synergistic contribution of Cu and Ni and the enrichment of zeolitic channel pores. Using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), the detection limit (LOD) of LAM at the potential (- 0.15 V) can reach 0.001 pM and the linear range is 0.002 pM-0.002 µM. Since the nano cluster is separated and restricted by the nanosized windows of the zeolite framework, the sensor provides high stability, good recovery (92.5-109%) and RSD (0.8-3.2%) in the analysis of tap water, RPMI 1640 medium, and rabbit serum. The Cu/Ni/LTA zeolite-modified glassy carbon electrode (Cu/Ni/LTA/GCE) exhibits excellent catalytic performance for LAM with high selectivity over potentially interfering agents. A sensitive Cu and Ni nano cluster sensor for LAM is generated in the hydrothermal condition that the Cu and Ni atoms are highly dispersed and aggregated in the nanosized opening pore windows of the as-synthesized LTA zeolite. Through the diatomic synergistic contribution of Cu and Ni and the enrichment of zeolitic channel pores, the observed limit of detection (LOD) can reach 0.001 pM under differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) method with a wide linear relationship to 0.002 µM.