Electrochemical investigation of 5-fluorouracil at ZnO modified carbon paste electrode

Abstract

In this study, a carbon paste electrode has been modified with ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) synthesized using the leaf extract of Tabernaemontana divaricata (T. divaricata) to serve as a sensor to detect 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) through voltammetric techniques. X-ray diffractometry (XRD) confirmed the hexagonal Wurtzite structure of ZnO NPs with an average crystallite size of 10.28 nm. ZnO-modified carbon paste electrodes (ZnO/MCPE) showed excellent sensitivity and electrocatalytic performance relative to bare carbon paste electrodes (BCPE), achieving a lower detection limit (LOD) of 3.41 µM for the detection of 5-Fluorouracil. In the simultaneous detection of 5-FU and Sulfadiazine (SFZ), ZnO/MCPE exhibited a significantly higher current response, with well-elucidated peak potentials observed at 1.05 V and 0.86 V for 5-FU and SFZ, respectively.