A new electrochemiluminescent sensing interface for clonazepam based on titanate nanotubes self-assembled film

A nanometer-sized titanic substance, titanate nanotube, was synthesized and used for investigating the electrochemiluminescence (ECL) behaviors of lucigenin. A self-assembled film of titanate nanotube was formed on the chitosan modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) through electrostatic attraction. Comparing with the bare GCE, a dramatically enhanced (more than 50-fold) and more stable ECL emission of lucigenin could be achieved on the proposed TNTs/chitosan composite film-modified GCE under the cathodic potential scanning mode. Clonazepam was firstly found and employed as the coreactant to enhance ECL of lucigenin. Herein, this coreactant ECL system was investigated on the proposed ECL platform in detail. Under the optimum conditions, the proposed ECL sensor exhibited a linear response range of 1.0 × 10−8–1.0 × 10−4 M with detection limit of 8.4 × 10−9 M and long-term stability for clonazepam. The possible mechanism for this sensor was also discussed.