MIP-Based Screen-Printed Electrode for Irbesartan Sensing

Abstract

In this study, the development of an MIP-based electrode for voltammetric detection of irbesartan is presented. Irbesartan is a drug prescribed to treat hypertension and high blood pressure. Recent studies associated sartans with several forms of cancer, making removing this class of substances from the environment a high priority, and the EU has categorized it as an emerging pollutant. Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) have already been used to remove pollutants from complex matrixes; hence, they were also chosen for this work. In particular, a polymer based on polyacrylate moiety was used to functionalize the graphite working electrode of screen-printed cells (SPCs), aiming to develop a voltammetric method for Irbesartan sensing. The prepolymeric mixture was drop-coated on the working electrode. The electrochemical technique used to quantify irbesartan is the square wave voltammetry (SWV); the experiments were carried out in acetate buffer at pH 5.5. A detection limit of 19 μg/L was obtained, and the linearity ranged from 31 μg/L to 432 μg/L. The procedure was replicated with different SPCs obtaining similar results, highlighting good reproducibility. The electrodes were also applied to determine irbesartan in fortified tap water samples, obtaining high recovery percentages. Considering the good results, the electrochemical methods based on MIP-functionalized screen-printed electrodes are promising for quantifying irbesartan at a trace level.

Keywords

• MIPs
• electrochemical sensors
• emerging pollutants
• MIP-based sensors
• chemosensors