Highly sensitive voltammetric determination of NADH based on N-CQDs decorated SnO2/ionic liquid/carbon paste electrode

A highly sensitive and selective modified electrode was successfully developed for the monitoring of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) in the presence of folic acid. In this regard, a carbon paste electrode (CPE) was functionalized by the nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots/tin oxide (N-CQDs/SnO2) nanocomposite and 1-butyl-2,3-dimethyl imidazolium hexafluorophosphate ([C4DMIM][PF6]) ionic liquid (IL). The structure and surface morphology of the nanocomposite were characterized by various methods, including field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The modified electrode displayed powerful and long-lasting electron mediating activity, with well-separated NADH and folic acid oxidation peaks. The sensing response of the developed [C4DMIM][PF6]/N-CQDs/SnO2/CPE platform was evaluated by determining NADH via the voltammetric technique under the optimized operating conditions. The current peaks of the square wave voltammograms of NADH and folic acid increased linearly with enhancing its concentrations within the ranges of 0.003 - 275 µM NADH and 0.4 - 380 µM folic acid. The detection limits for NADH and folic acid were obtained at 0.8 nM and 0.1 µM, respectively. Interference species such as glucose, urea, tryptophan, glycine, methionine, and vitamin B12 had no influence on the ability of the fabricated modified electrode to detect the target species. The low detection limit, high sensitivity, excellent selectivity, superior stability, and cost-effectiveness made it suitable for the quantification of NADH in the real biological samples with the recovery percent values in the range of 97.5 - 103%.