Liquid / Liquid Interface-Based Electrochemical Sensing of Ractopamine and Salbutamol

An electrochemical sensor based on ion transfer across micro- and nano-liquid / liquid interfaces has been developed for the detection of protonated drugs, ractopamine (RacH+) and salbutamol (SalH+) via cyclic voltammetry (CV) and linear sweep stripping voltammetry (LSSV). These voltammetric methods enabled the detection and characterisation of the ionised drugs despite that they transferred at high applied potentials. The drugs' thermodynamic and analytical parameters were determined. The limit of detection in the sub-μM range is suitable for applications to detection in real samples. Electrochemistry at the liquid / liquid interfaces was shown to be a viable technique for drug sensing.