Facile preparation of tungsten carbide nanoparticles for an efficient oxalic acid sensor via imprinting

Abstract

Efficient tungsten carbide (W2C) nanoparticles were successfully prepared via a facile chemical reduction method. Structural confirmation studies were performed using spectroscopy and microscopy studies. The dropcasted W2C nanoparticles on glassy carbon electrode (GCE) used for the fabrication of molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) using oxalic acid (OA) in the presence of dopamine as a functional monomer through self polymerization. For the first time, fabricated MIP-W2C/GCE sensor used for the electrochemical detection of OA, a reliable kidney stone marker. The different loading mass of W2C nanoparticles and thickness of MIP layer were used to investigate its electrochemical activity towards the OA sensor. The developed MIP-W2C/GCE sensor operated in an extensive concentration level of 0.1 nM-100 mu M, and it offered an LOD of 0.04 nM with an excellent regression coefficient of 0.998, good reproducibility which proved from the four different sensors (RSD - 2.8%), and retained nearly 94% of its initial activity even after 35 days. The prepared sensor also successfully demonstrated its capability to detect OA in the real urine samples with the recovery range of 98.03-100.24 %.