Modification of a pencil graphite electrode with multiwalled carbon nanotubescapped gold nanoparticles for electrochemical determination of Tramadol

Tramadol (TRA) is a narcotic-like pain reliever that is used for the treatment of moderate to severepain. TRA like other narcotic drugs used as a pain treatment may be abused. The analgesic potencyof tramadol is between weak opioid and morphine. In several controlled clinical studies, oral andparenteral tramadol effectively relieved moderate to severe postoperative pain associated withsurgery. In addition, its overdose can cause dizziness, vomiting, and nausea since it isconsidered as a toxic material in nature [1]. Therefore, developing a sensitive and selective methodfor its determination in biological samples is very important. Several analytical techniques havebeen reported for the determination of tramadol, such as adsorptive stripping voltammetry, gaschromatography-tandem mass spectrometry [2], liquid chromatography [3], and ultravioletspectrophotometry. Electrochemical methods, have attracted more attention in recent years forreasons of their recognition properties, simplicity, high sensitivity, good stability, high selectivity,low cost and fast response. In this research, we introduce a new electrochemical detection methodfor tramadol based on a pencil graphite electrode modified with multiwalled carbon nanotubes(MWCNT) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). The electrochemical sensor was fabricated viaimmersing of a pencil graphite electrode in multiwalled carbon nanotubes suspension and thendeposition of the gold nanoparticles through electrochemical method. The fabrication process of thesensor was characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy(EIS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Several significant parameters such as pH,scanning rate and the amount of carbon nanotubes controlling the performance of the sensor wereexamined and optimized. The influence of interfering species including ascorbic acid, uric acid andcitric acid were evaluated and the results showed that the developed sensor has a high selectivityfor tramadol. The proposed method shows requisite accuracy, precision, sensitivity and selectivityfor determination of tramadol in tablet and biological fluids.

کلیدواژه ها:

Tramadol ، Pencil graphite electrode ، Carbon nanotubes ، Gold nanoparticles ، Modifiedelectrode