Carbon Quantum Dots Co-catalyzed with ZnO Nanoflowers and Poly (CTAB) Nanosensor for Simultaneous Sensitive Detection of Paracetamol and Ciprofloxacin in Biological Samples

A novel platform based incorporation of carbon quantum dots (CQDs) and zinc oxide nanoflowers (ZnO-NFs) decorated with poly cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) was developed as electrochemical sensor for the sensitive and selective simultaneous detection of Paracetamol (PAR) and Ciprofloxacin (CIP) in biological samples. For this, CQDs and ZnO-NFs were first deposited on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) and subsequently a Poly (CTAB) layer was grown onto their surfaces through electro-polymerization. The synthesized nanostructures and the corresponding fabricated sensor were characterized by the techniques of TEM, XRD, FE-SEM, and EDX analysis. Moreover electrochemical characterization by CV and DPV were performed to elucidate the construction process and electron transfer abilities of the CQDs/ZnO-NFs/Poly(CTAB)/GCE. Increased sensitivity and efficiency of this sensing system was obtained due to the synergistic effects of CQDs, ZnO-NFs and Poly (CTAB) with multi-signal amplification. Under the optimum conditions, the DPV response of proposed sensor to PAR and CIP was linear at 0.05-30.0 mu M and 0.01-30.0 mu M, with the detection limit of 2.47 nM and 1.97 nM respectively. The sensor possessed high stability, reproducibility, sensitivity, and selectivity toward PAR and CIP detection, over potential interferents and presented high recovery percentage in the real sample matrices.