An Electrochemical Platform Constructed with Tantalum Nanoparticles and Graphene Nanoplatelets for the Voltammetric Sensing of Ritodrine

Abstract

Tantalum (Ta) nanoparticles were synthesized by the reaction of lithium with pyridine solution of TaCl₅ via ultrasonication. Then, Ta nanoparticles and graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) were utilized to construct a novel sensing platform for the voltammetric detection of ritodrine. The electrochemically active surface area and charge transfer resistance (R_ct) of the proposed electrochemical platform (GCE/GNP@Ta) were determined to be 0.336 cm² and 86 Ω. This indicates that proposed material can be considered as a promising material in sensing applications. The performance of GCE/GNP@Ta was examined for ritodrine oxidation process and compared with other electrodes. GCE/GNP@Ta improved the voltammetric behavior of ritodrine and exhibited an oxidation peak potential (E_p) of 0.71 V, which is less than that of other electrodes. The potential shift and peak improvement of ritodrine indicated the higher electrocatalytic activity of electrode modified with GNP@Ta. GCE/GNP@Ta exhibited a working range from 4.0 × 10⁻⁸ to 1.5 × 10⁻⁶ M with a detection limit of 1.0 × 10⁻⁹ M (3s_b/m) for ritodrine. The voltammetric measurements yielded excellent accuracy and high precision for ritodrine in biological samples.