First Screen-Printed Sensor (Electrochemically Activated Screen-Printed Boron-Doped Diamond Electrode) for Quantitative Determination of Rifampicin by Adsorptive Stripping Voltammetry

In this paper, a screen-printed boron-doped electrode (aSPBDDE) was subjected to electrochemical activation by cyclic voltammetry (CV) in 0.1 M NaOH and the response to rifampicin (RIF) oxidation was used as a testing probe. Changes in surface morphology and electrochemical behaviour of RIF before and after the electrochemical activation of SPBDDE were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), CV and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The increase in number and size of pores in the modifier layer and reduction of charge transfer residence were likely responsible for electrochemical improvement of the analytical signal from RIF at the SPBDDE. Quantitative analysis of RIF by using differential pulse adsorptive stripping voltammetry in 0.1 mol L(−1) solution of PBS of pH 3.0 ± 0.1 at the aSPBDDE was carried out. Using optimized conditions (E(acc) of −0.45 V, t(acc) of 120 s, ΔE(A) of 150 mV, ν of 100 mV s(−1) and t(m) of 5 ms), the RIF peak current increased linearly with the concentration in the four ranges: 0.002–0.02, 0.02–0.2, 0.2–2.0, and 2.0–20.0 nM. The limits of detection and quantification were calculated at 0.22 and 0.73 pM. The aSPBDDE showed satisfactory repeatability, reproducibility, and selectivity towards potential interferences. The applicability of the aSPBDDE for control analysis of RIF was demonstrated using river water samples and certified reference material of bovine urine.