Abstract
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•Development of a nanocomposite consisting of CeO2 nanoparticles and g-C3N4 sheets.•Electrocatalytic oxidation of an anti-depressant drug using CeO2/g-C3N4 nanocomposite based GCE for the first time.•CeO2/g-C3N4/GCE sensor resulted in improved sensitivity and detection limit of the method.•Proposed analytical method is suitable for routine analysis in commercially available pharmaceutical samples.
Herein, a binary composite electrode comprising CeO2 nanoparticles and g-C3N4 sheets were investigated for electrochemical determination of an anti-depressant drug Agomelatine (AG). The nanocomposite was utilized for fabrication of glassy carbon electrode (GCE) via simple casting method and characterized for morphology and composition using various advanced characterization tools which indicated successful loading of CeO2 nanoparticles on g-C3N4 sheets. The modified sensor was employed for electrochemical study of AG using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and square wave voltammetry (SWV). A significant enhancement was observed in anodic peak current at CeO2/g-C3N4/GCE, as compared to bare electrode, due to reduction in charge transfer resistance and augmentation in electron transfer process. Electroactive surface area of modified sensor was found to be 0.204 cm2 which was almost 8 times higher than bare electrode. A diffusion-limited process involving equal number of protons and electrons controlled the electrochemical oxidation of AG with the sensor. Under optimized conditions, the modified sensor displayed linear response over a concentration range of 1-20 ng/ml, limit of detection (LOD) 0.96 ng/ml and limit of quantification (LOQ) 2.92 ng/ml. The developed method was successfully applied to determine AG in commercial tablets with satisfactory recovery results along with good reproducibility, selectivity and stability.