Electrochemical Detection of Tenofovir through Quenching of Chloride Ion-Mediated Gold Electrodissolution

Langmuir. 2024 Feb 27;40(8):4314-4320. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.3c03563. Epub 2024 Feb 14.

Abstract

Tenofovir (TNF) is a nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitor used as an antiviral medication to treat human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis B virus infections. The extensive use of TNF can result in its release into the environment, and there is growing interest in developing simple and cost-effective methods for detecting TNF. We report that the electrochemical dissolution of gold in a chloride ion-containing electrolyte is suppressed in the presence of TNF. The quenching of the gold electrodissolution response is the result of the adsorption of TNF onto the gold surface. A simple analysis shows that we can relate the degree of TNF surface coverage to the relative size of the quenching of the gold electrodissolution response and follow the time-dependent absorption of TNF onto the gold electrode surface.