Efficient quercetin sensor utilizing chitosan-modified carboxylated MWCNTs for fast and accurate analysis

Abstract

A new electrochemical sensor incorporating a molecularly imprinted polymer and multi-walled carbon nanotubes was successfully created for the sensitive detection of quercetin (Qu). The molecularly imprinted polymer was prepared by using quercetin as the template, 4-vinyl pyridine as the monomer, 2,2′-azobis (2-methylpropionitrile) as the initiator agent and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as the cross-linker, respectively. A series of electrochemical experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of the developed sensor and the experimental results demonstrate that the sensor for quercetin demonstrates a broad detection range of 1–245.5 and 245.5–630.5 μM with a low limit of detection of 0.23 μM. Additionally, this quercetin sensor exhibited long-term durability, good repeatability, and excellent selectivity in the presence of other interferents. In addition, the sensor was used for the evaluation of quercetin in human serum samples and ginkgo leaves, showing satisfactory recovery results of 99.04–103.85% and 98.90–103.07%, respectively, indicating that the sensor has great potential for practical applications.