Electrochemical detection of toxic ractopamine and salbutamol in pig meat and human urine samples by using poly taurine/zirconia nanoparticles modified electrodes

Detection of ractopamine and salbutamol has been developed by employing the facile synthesis of poly taurine/zirconia nanoparticles (ZrO2) modified film glassy carbon electrode. The poly taurine/ZrO2 nanoparticles were directly utilized for the detection of ractopamine and salbutamol using linear sweep voltammetry (LSV). The modified electrode successfully shows the oxidation peak for ractopamine adsorption at 0.65 V and salbutamol at 0.71 V, which is purely based on the detection of adsorption signals of ractopamine and salbutamol, at the electrode surface. Furthermore, the electrochemical measurements and surface morphology were studied using cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. The modified electrode successfully detects the oxidation signals of ractopamine in the linear range of 1–28 μM and salbutamol in the linear range of 5–220 μM in laboratory samples. The proposed film also successfully detects the ractopamine signal (1–26 μM) in pig meat samples and salbutamol signal (1–114 μM) in human urine samples. It also exhibits two well-separated anodic oxidation peaks for uric acid and salbutamol in salbutamol-spiked human urine samples.