Research Specifications

Pethidine (PTD), known as meperidine (ethyl, 1-methyl-4-phenylpiperidine-4- carboxylate hydrochloride), is a synthetic opiate in the category of phenylpiperidine with many side effects. PTD use has been banned by many organizations like the International Olympic Committee (IOC) because of the disorder of vital biological activity of the body and, even worse, death by the drug interactions of PTD or its overdose [1-3]. Due to the importance of PTD tracking in biofluids, the clinical and judicial organizations have recently boosted many demands for a selective and real-time sensor, especially through a noninvasive method. Herein, the impregnation of carbon cloth with carbon selenide nanofilms (CSe2NF/CC) has been proposed for the electrochemical sensor fabrication for PTD monitoring in the human blood, urine and saliva samples. Accordingly, Se was doped in the carbon skeleton to provide the CSe2NF/CC as the sensing interface and embed a sizeable electroactive surface area of 4.61 cm2 compared to the unmodified CC (0.094 cm2). By optimizing some important parameters, including the effect of accumulation time, the amount of Se powder, scan rate, pH and the supporting electrolyte type, the CSe2NF/CC catalyzed PTD with an oxidation current of 18-times higher than unmodified CC at 0.97 V. This electrochemical behavior revealed that CSe2NF onto CC surface as a sensing interface has an acceptable catalytic effect for PTD oxidation. The developed flexible sensor exhibited a detection limit (LOD) of 19.3 nM and two linear PTD concentration ranges (29 nM to 1.9 µM and 1.9 µM to 181.8 µM) by the excellent stability of 93.2% after 30 days. PTD analysis in the non-spiked and spiked real samples by the developed sensor was validated by HPLC analysis as the reference method using a t-test statistical method at the confidence level of 5%. The results ascertain the applied strategy in the flexible sensor design as a model may be a convenient method for the fast, non-invasive addict di