Phenylethylamine sensing at the electrified liquid-liquid interface. Can electrochemistry be used to follow the UHT milk spoilage process?

Abstract

This study involved an investigation into the electrochemical characteristic of a few biogenic amines (BAs) occurring at the polarized interface between two immiscible electrolyte solutions (ITIES) with ion transfer voltammetry (ITV). The main focus of this research was the comprehensive electroanalytical and physicochemical analysis of phenylethylamine (PEA), allowing the determined of the formal Galvani potential of the ion transfer reaction (Δ_org^aqΦ^'), diffusion coefficients (D), formal free Gibbs energy of the ion transfer reaction (ΔG^'aq→org) and water-1,2-dichloroethane partition coefficient (logP_water/DCE^PEA). Furthermore, the collected data were employed to calculate analytical parameters, including voltametric detection sensitivity, limits of detection and the target analyte quantification. Moreover, the influence of the presence of 7 other BAs (histamine, spermine, spermidine, putrescine, cadaverine, tyramine and tryptamine) on the recorded signals originating from the PEA ion transfer was checked. The feasibility of the developed method was corroborated through experimentation with milk samples. Additionally, utilizing the devised methodology, an electrochemical assessment of the spoilage progression in milk samples was undertaken.

Keywords: Biogenic amines; Food spoilage; ITIES; Milk sample; Phenylethylamine; Tryptamine.