Ultrasound-induced radicals initiated the formation of inorganic-organic Pr2O3/polystyrene hybrid composite for electro-oxidative determination of chemotherapeutic drug methotrexate.

To dates, the facile synthesis of inorganic-coated organic polymer composite has received greater attention in the order of research fields including advanced materials and electrochemical analysis owing to the complementary or synergistic effects. In this context, Pr2O3 and Pr2O3 coated polystyrene (Pr2O3/PS) inorganic-organic colloidal composite were prepared via ultrasound-induced radicals initiated precipitation and dispersion polymerization methods. The synthesized Pr2O3/PS composite was systematically studied by FE-SEM, TEM, EDX, FT-IR, XRD, and XPS analysis. This composite modified glassy carbon electrode (Pr2O3/PS GCE) was utilized to construct a novel electrochemical sensor for the detection assay of chemotherapy agent methotrexate (MTA). Under optimal condition, the designed sensor showed outstanding performance for MTA trace level detection over the linear concentration range of 0.01-236 µM with a detection limit of 0.8 nM for MTA. Furthermore, the prepared sensor accomplished excellent stability and relevant reproducibility, in addition to reliable practical assay in real human blood serum and urine samples. Besides, the possible MTA sensing mechanism of Pr2O3/PS GCE has been deliberated in detail. Our finding suggested that the developed Pr2O3/PS composite might be a favorable material for the fabrication of the high-performance electrochemical sensor.