Application of a novel anthracene derivative polymer for sensitive voltammetric determination of chloramphenicol in pharmaceutical and food samples

Abstract

The application of new polymers for the preparation of modified electrodes is an interesting research area, which is highly significant in the electrochemical antibiotic drug sensors for food safety and environmental sides. Herein, we successfully report the synthesis of a new anthracene-based monomer (N1, N4-bis(anthracene-9-yl-methylene)-2,5-dichlorobenzene-1,4-diamine (ADCA) and Poly(ADCA) modified carbon-based electrode has been used in sensitive and selective differential pulse voltammetric determination of chloramphenicol (CPNL) for the first time. In this platform, the proposed monomer was successfully electro-polymerized onto a cheap, low-cost, and disposable pencil graphite electrode (PGE). The cyclic and differential pulse voltammetric experiments proved that the polymer-modified electrode Poly(ADCA)/PGE) has great electrocatalytic efficiency on the reduction of CPNL. The proposed platform shows a comparable performance in terms of wide linear ranges (2.0–100 and 100–1000 µM), a low detection limit (0.55 µM) and high sensitivity (11405 µA mM⁻¹ cm⁻²) by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). Additionally, the Poly(ADCA)/PGE exhibited high selectivity and anti-interference facilities for the CPNL. The fabricated sensor showed a promising potential for the determination of CPNL in food (honey, and milk), bottled water, and pharmaceutical (eye ointment) samples with acceptable accuracies and precisions.