A novel electrochemical platform based on carbon nanofibers and tri-metallic nanoparticles of gold, nickel and cobalt for the quantification of ethyl paraben

Abstract

A composite of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) and tri-metallic nanoparticles of gold, cobalt and nickel were used for the preparation of a novel voltammetric platform. The proposed voltammetric platform was utilized for quantifying ethyl paraben (EPB) in pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. The electrode layers were characterized by utilizing X-ray diffraction method (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The electrode system, (Au-Ni-Co)NPs-CNFs/GCE, exhibited high catalytic activity and enhanced the electrochemical behaviour of EPB compared with several other electrodes. The proposed composite layer based electrode produced a well-defined oxidation peak at 0.760V. The determination of EPB was carried out by square wave voltammetry (SWV). The electrode produced a linear plot with a concentration range from 1.0×10^-9 to 1.0×10^-7M at (Au-Ni-Co)NPs-CNFs/GCE. The composite material enabled a detection limit of 3.5×10^-10M for EPB. Good reproducibility, high precision and excellent accuracy for EPB were obtained at (Au-Ni-Co)NPs-CNFs/GCE. The composite layer based platform was successfully applied for the quantification of EPB in pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. The sensitive quantification of EPB is of great importance for the public health care. Furthermore, data show that EPB binds to DNA via intercalation with a binding constant of 2.51(±0.40)×10⁴.

Keywords: Carbon nanofibers; Composite material; Ethyl paraben; Modification; Tri-metal nanoparticles.