Journal
BIOSENSORS & BIOELECTRONICS
Volume 132, Issue -, Pages 136-142Publisher
ELSEVIER ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2019.03.001
Keywords
Flunitrazepam; Rohypnol(center dot); Drug-facilitated sexual assault; Date-rape drugs; Screen-printed sparked electrodes; Point-of-need voltammetric sensors
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Flunitrazepam, also known as Rohypnol or Rophy among other trade and street names, is an extremely potent benzodiazepine that is prescribed to treat severe insomnia. Due to these attributes, flunitrazepam, when is surreptitiously administered to an alcoholic or soft drink, is associated with drug-facilitated sexual assault. We report here for the first time, a low cost lab-on-a-screen-printed electrochemical cell (SPC) based on iron-sparked graphite working electrode modified with glucose oxidase (GOx) and glucose hydrogel droplets (G1uHD) for the detection of flunitrazepam. Iron-spark modification increases the response of the sensor by ca. 3-fold compared with that of the plain electrode, while an in situ deoxygenation process, based on GOx-glucose enzyme reaction, depletes dissolved oxygen. As a result, the method enables interference free voltammetric measurements of the electro reduction of the nitro group of flunitrazepam at ca. -0.71 to -0.78 V vs. Ag printed pseudo reference electrode depending on the samples matrix, and the detection of the drug at the sub-millimolar level. GOx/GluHD-FeSPC was directly applied to the drop-volume (similar to 60 mu L) detection of flunitrazepam to a wide range of untreated and undiluted spiked samples (Pepsi cola (R), Vodka, Whisky, Tequila, Gin, and Rum) of different acidity (pH 2.3-8.4), and alcohol content up to 40% v/v. Data demonstrate the excellent performance of the sensor for point-of-need screening of flunitrazepam and suggest that GOx/GluHD-FeSPC holds promise as an effective analytical tool to prevent phenomena of covert drug administration.
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