Carbon microspheres uniformly decorated with ceria nanoparticles as an ultrasensitive platform for electrochemical sensing of antihypertensive drug lacidipine in patient plasma and pharmaceutical formulation

Herein, a novel ultrasensitive lacidipine (LCDP) electrochemical sensing platform was constructed based on functionalized glassy carbon (FGC) microspheres anchored with ceria nanoparticles (CeO2NPs@FGC, ratio 2:1 w/w). The XRD, SEM, HRTEM, and EDX results confirmed the formation of the hybrid CeO2NPs@FGC composite. A molecular wire (MW) modified CeO2NPs@FGC electrode (CeO2NPs@FGC-MWE) was firstly fabricated by mixing CeO2NPs@FGC composite with diphenylacetylene (DPA). The fabricated CeO2NPs@FGC-MWE sensor exhibited high electro-catalytic activity towards the oxidation of antihypertensive drug LCDP. Quantitative LCDP detection was achieved using adsorptive anodic stripping square-wave voltammetry (AdAS-SWV). The LOD and the LOQ are estimated to be 2.3 and 7.6 nM, respectively, with a dynamic range of 7.0–2680 nM and a sensitivity of 206 μA μM−1 cm−2. Moreover, the fabricated sensor also shows good selectivity, favorable reproducibility, good antifouling activity, and long-term stability. The practical utility of the sensor for LCDP monitoring in biological fluids, patient plasma and pharmaceutical formulation was evaluated with satisfactory results. The UHPLC technique was utilized to verify the accuracy of the proposed method.