Voltammetric determination of trace doxorubicin at a nano-titania/nafion composite film modified electrode in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide

A sensitive electrochemical method was developed for the determination of doxorubicin at a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) modified with a nano-titania (nano-TiO2)/nafion composite film. Nano-TiO2 was dispersed into nafion to give a homogeneous suspension. After solvent evaporation, a uniform film of nano-TiO2/nafion composite was obtained on the GCE surface. The nano-TiO2/nafion composite film modified GCE exhibited excellent electrochemical behavior toward the reduction of doxorubicin. Compared to the reduction of doxorubicin at the bare GCE, the reduction current of doxorubicin at the nano-TiO2/nafion composite film modified GCE was greatly enhanced. Based on this, a novel voltammetric method was applied to the determination of doxorubicin. The experimental parameters that influence the reduction current of doxorubicin, were optimized. Under optimal conditions, a linear response of doxorubicin was obtained in the range from 5.0 × 10−9 to 2.0 × 10−6 mol L−1 (R = 0.998) and with a limit of detection (LOD) of 1.0 × 10−9 mol L−1(S/N = 3). The RSD of the measurement is 4.7%, and the RSD of the inter-electrode is of 5.1% which indicate the reproducibility of this method. The current response decreased only by around 3.8% of its initial response after 2 weeks exposing the electrode in air. The procedure was applied to assay doxorubicin in human plasma samples with the recoveries of 94.9–104.4%.