A simple and sensitive methodology for voltammetric determination of valproic acid in human blood plasma samples using 3-aminopropyletriethoxy silane coated magnetic nanoparticles modified pencil graphite electrode

•A new voltammetric sensor was prepared for trace determination of valproic acid.•3-Aminopropyletriethoxy silane coated magnetic nanoparticles was used as signal amplifier.•The proposed sensor was simple and had good sensitivity, specificity, repeatability and reproducibility.

In this work, we have prepared a nano-material modified pencil graphite electrode for the sensing of valproic acid (VA) by immobilization 3-aminopropyletriethoxy silane coated magnetic nanoparticles (APTES-MNPs) on the pencil graphite surface (PGE). Electrochemical studies indicated that the APTES-MNPs efficiently increased the electron transfer kinetics between VA and the electrode and the free NH2 groups of the APTES on the outer surface of magnetic nanoparticles can interact with carboxyl groups of VA. Based on this, we have proposed a sensitive, rapid and convenient electrochemical method for VA determination. Under the optimized conditions, the reduction peak current of VA is found to be proportional to its concentration in the range of 1.0 (± 0.2) to 100.0 (± 0.3) ppm with a detection limit of 0.4 (± 0.1) ppm. The whole sensor fabrication process was characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) methods with using [Fe(CN)6]3 −/4-as an electrochemical redox indicator. The prepared modified electrode showed several advantages such as high sensitivity, selectivity, ease of preparation and good repeatability, reproducibility and stability. The proposed method was applied to determination of valproic acid in blood plasma samples and the obtained results were satisfactory accurate.

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