CTAB functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotube composite modified electrode for the determination of 6-mercaptopurine

•Electrochemical behavior of 6-mercaptopurine at MWCNT-CTAB modified glassy carbon electrode was investigated.•The process was irreversible.•The detection limit was 8.41 × 10− 9 M for 6-MP determination.•The method was applied for 6-MP determination in real samples.•A suitable mechanism was proposed.

In this work the electrochemical behavior of 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) on MWCNT-CTAB modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) is reported in a phosphate buffer solution, pH 3.0. Cyclic voltammetric studies indicated that the oxidation process is irreversible and diffusion-controlled. The number of electrons exchanged in the electro-oxidation process was obtained, and the data indicated that 6-MP is oxidized via a two-electron step. The results revealed that MWCNT-CTAB modified GCE promotes the rate of oxidation compared to the bare GCE, by increasing the peak current. The electron-transfer coefficients and heterogeneous electron-transfer rate constants for 6-MP were reported using modified GCE. A sensitive, simple, and timesaving linear sweep voltammetric procedure was developed for the analysis of 6-MP, using the MWCNT-CTAB/GC electrode. 6-MP can be determined with a detection limit of 8.41 × 10− 9 M in the range of 5.0 × 10− 7 M to 3.0 × 10− 6 M with the proposed method. The developed method was successfully applied in real sample analysis.