Biosynthesis and characterization of NiFe2O4-NPs for electrochemical detection of ceftriaxone from biological and pharmaceutical samples

Ceftriaxone (Cef) is an anti-bactericidal medicine and belongs to the group of third generation antibiotics. Usually, antibiotics are analyzed by spectroscopic and chromatographic techniques. However, electrochemicalbased analysis is one of the most convenient, cost-effective, fast, and accurate tools for the measurement of a variety of analytes. In this project, a green methodology was adopted to synthesize nickel ferrite nanoparticles (NiFe2O4-NPs) by using fagonia plant extract. Biosynthesized NiFe2O4-NPs were characterized by scanning electron and atomic force microscopy as well as advanced spectroscopic techniques for the confirmation of surface morphology, crystallite nature, and particle size distribution. An efficient electrochemical sensor was fabricated as NiFe2O4-NPs modified glassy carbon electrode (NiFe2O4-NPs/GCE) for the selective detection of Cef. To study the electron transfer behaviour a new fabricated sensor was characterized by cyclic voltammetry. An electrochemical approach was developed for the quantification of Cef in the dynamic range of 10 x10-9-3.2 x10-6 M (R2 = 0.998) with a detection limit (1.6 x10-9 M). The analytical characteristics including reproducibility, accuracy, and precession of the developed method were studied in detail. The sensor was successfully applied to real sample analysis (pharmaceutical preparations and biological fluids) for the determination of Cef and showed an excellent % recovery from 92.20 to 102.50.