A highly improved luminol–O2 chemiluminescence system in the presence of graphene oxide nanoparticles for determination of paracetamol in pharmaceutical formulations

Chemiluminescence (CL), as an analytical technique, is based on the measurement of the electromagnetical radiation (usually visible/near-infrared radiation) emitted by a chemical reaction [1]. In recent years, nanomaterials with the unique physical and chemical properties have amplified the CL signal and improved the sensitivity of the various CL detection systems [2]. In this work, graphene oxide (GO) nanoparticles (NPs) was synthesized by using the modified Hummer s method [3]. The structural study of GO was performed by ultraviolet and visible (UV-VIS) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. It was found that GO NPs possess oxidase-like activity and enhance the intensity of the luminol–O2 CL reaction. Moreover, in the presence of paracetamol as a target analyte, the improved GO NPs-luminol-O2 CL intensity was decreased. Accordingly, a novel and sensitive CL method for determination of paracetamol drug was developed. The effect of various chemical parameters on CL intensity were investigated and optimized. Under the optimum conditions, a linear relationship was obtained between the enhanced CL intensity and the concentration of paracetamol in the range of 7×10‒6 ‒5×10‒5 M with a detection limit of 8.72×10-7M. The relative standard deviation for 5 determinations of 2×10‒5M paracetamol is 3.39%. The method was applied to determine paracetamol in several pharmaceutical formulations.