Determination of cefixime using a novel electrochemical sensor produced with gold nanowires/graphene oxide/electropolymerized molecular imprinted polymer

Quantitative analysis of antibiotics is very important because these drugs are widely used to prevent or treat various diseases. Cefixime (CEF, a semi-synthetic antibiotic and the third generation of cephalosporin) is a bactericidal medicine that prevents formation of cell walls in bacteria as well as their growth and proliferation. It, thus, causes the death of bacteria. Antibiotics such as CEF are generally determined by chromatography and spectroscopy techniques. Electrochemical sensors are one of the fast, convenient and low-cost tools for measuring this type of compounds. In this research, an electrochemical sensor was constructed by modifying a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) with expanded graphene oxide and gold nanowires, and then its surface was electropolymerized with a molecular imprinted polymeric layer of polyaniline. The morphological characterization of the obtained film was carried out by scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM). The proposed sensor was analytically characterized on the purpose of comparing it to other modified GCEs. The sensor could work linearly for the concentration range of 20.0-950.0 nM and with a limit of detection of 7.1 nM. It was successfully applied to determine CEF traces in biological samples (i.e. serum and urine) with excellent recovery percentages.