Multisensor system based on bisphthalocyanine nanowires for the detection of antioxidants

Electrophoretic deposition has been used to prepare thin films based on nanowires of three lanthanoid bisphthalocyaninates (including dysprosium, gadolinium and lutetium). Nanowires of similar structural characteristics have been obtained for the three compounds by tuning the electrophoretic conditions according to the redox properties of each phthalocyanine. The three electrodes have been used to form an array of sensors that has been employed to discriminate phenolic antioxidants of interest in the food industry including caffeic, gallic, vanillic and ferulic acids. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) of the electrochemical signals has allowed a clear discrimination of the four phenols analyzed according to the number of phenolic groups attached to the structure (monophenol, diphenol or triphenol). The PCA loading plots indicate that the three electrodes bring complementary information facilitating the discrimination of the studied solutions. In addition, good correlations between the intensity of the redox processes observed in the electrodes and the concentration of phenolic compounds have been found with detection limits in the range of 10−5–10−6 mol L−1 and good reproducibility.The fast preparation of these nanowires based films and their excellent performance offer a new sensing platform for the detection of antioxidants in a fast, reliable way.

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► Sensors based on LnPc2 nanowires can be prepared by electrodeposition (EDP).
► An electronic tongue can be constructed by combining EDP sensors with a data treatment system.
► The e-tongue is able to discriminate antioxidants of interest in the food industry.
► The fast preparation and excellent performance of these nanostructured sensors is an advantage.