Palladium nanoparticles in electrochemical sensing of trace terazosin in human serum and pharmaceutical preparations

•PdNPs were simply fabricated by electrochemical deposition.•PdNPs exhibited an excellent electrocatalytic activity toward oxidation of terazosin.•Terazosin has been determined in pharmaceutical sample and human serum sample.

In this approach, palladium nanoparticle film was simply fabricated on the surface of carbon paste electrode by electrochemical deposition method. The film was characterized using scanning electron microscopy, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. The prepared electrode exhibited an excellent electrocatalytic activity toward detection of trace amounts of terazosin, which is an antihypertensive drug. Under the optimum experimental conditions, a linear range of 1.0 × 10− 8-1.0 × 10− 3 mol L− 1 with a detection limit of 1.9 × 10− 9 mol L− 1 was obtained for determination of terazosin using differential pulse voltammetry as a sensitive method. The efficiency of palladium nanoparticle film on the surface of carbon paste electrode successfully proved for determination of terazosin in pharmaceutical sample and human serum sample with promising recovery results. The effect of some foreign species has been studied.