Electrochemical Morphine Sensing Using Gold Nanoparticles Modified Carbon Paste Electrode

Abstract

Morphine (MO) is frequently used to relieve severe pain for patients, especially for those who undergo a surgical procedure. However, when overdosed or abused, MO is toxic and can cause disruption in the central nervous system. Therefore, to prevent overdose-induced toxication, it is necessary to sensitively determine the concentrations of MO in patient's blood or urine. An easy-to-use approach for directly electrodepositing gold nanoparticles onto carbon paste electrode (CPE) to construct gold nanoparticles modified carbon paste electrode (GNMCPE) is performed. The electrochemistry of MO is investigated by cyclic voltammetry, differential pulse voltammetry and electrochemical impedance measurements. The data show that this electrode provides a promising approach for highly sensitive morphine sensing that offers an excellent response for morphine in the concentration range of 4.0×10−7 to 2.0×10−4 mol L−1, with a detection limit of 4.21 x 10-9 mol L−1 and a correlation coefficient of 0.998. GNMCE has also been successfully applied to the determination of morphine in urine samples with a low detection limit and satisfactory recovery. The good results indicate that GNMCPE holds great promise in practical application