Computer-assisted sensor design and analysis of 2-aminobenzimidazole in biological model samples based on electropolymerized-molecularly imprinted polypyrrole modified pencil graphite electrode

Molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) of 2-aminobenzimidazole (2-AB) was prepared through electropolymerization and electrodeposition of pyrrole on a pencil graphite electrode (PGE). The ability of fabricated MIP as a sensor to the analysis of 2-AB was investigated. The preparing of MIP and quantitative measurements were performed by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), respectively. The applied potentials of CV to preparing MIP and non-imprinted polymer (NIP) were obtained from −1.0 to 1.9 V. The DPV measurements were performed in the range of 0.63–1.25 V. The imprinted polymer synthesized on the PGE surface. Several important parameters like monomer concentration, number of CV cycles, pH of DPV measurements and template concentration controlling the performance of polypyrrole were investigated and optimized. The selection of monomer was performed computationally using ab initio calculations based on restricted Hartree–Fock to evaluate the template–monomer interaction energy in the prepolymerization mixture. The electrochemical synthesized MIP showed a good selectivity and sensitivity toward 2-AB. The calibration curve was demonstrated linearity over a concentration range of 1.0 × 10−9–3.0 × 10−2 M with a correlation coefficient (r2) of 0.9865. The limit of detection (LOD) for 2-AB was obtained 1.0 × 10−10 M.