Photoelectrochemical Determination of Paracetamol by using TiO2 Modified FTO Electrodes

Paracetamol is one of the most commonly used analgesics and its overdose causes toxicity. Therefore investigation of simple and effective techniques to determine paracetamol in the metabolism is very important. In this study TiO2 modified Fluorine-doped Tin Oxide (FTO) electrodes were investigated for photoelectrochemical determination of paracetamol and parameters affecting the photoelectrochemical signal of the electrodes were investigated. Initially, FTO electrodes were modified by adsorbing two commercial TiO2 (Merck and Degussa P25) and used for paracetamol determination. Higher photocurrent value was obtained by Degussa P25 (DegTiO2) modified electrode with respect to Merck one, therefore the optimization of the other analytical parameters was carried out with DegTiO2 modified electrodes. The effect of DegTiO2 amount on the FTO, solution pH, and applied voltage on the photocurrent values for paracetamol oxidation was studied. The electrode prepared as four-layer of DegTiO2 on the FTO surface showed the highest photocurrent value at 0.30 V and at pH 5.0. The photocurrent values are linear from 0.25 μM to 10 μM concentration of paracetamol and the limit of detection of paracetamol concentration is 0.07 μM. These results show that DegTiO2 modified FTO could be used as an effective and sensitive photoelectrochemical paracetamol sensor.