Electrochemiluminescence Drug Sensor for Acetaminophen using Boron Nitride Quantum Dots as Ru(bpy)32+ Coreactant for Acetaminophen

Acetaminophen (AP) is a commonly used drug that has been detected in groundwater systems in many countries, and has received much attention from researchers in recent years due to its potential environmental impact. In this research, uniformly distributed boron nitride quantum dots (BNQDs) were prepared by a simple ultrasound-solvothermal method. Electrochemical luminescence (ECL) spectroscopy confirmed that BNQDs can act as an effective coreactant to create excellent efficiency in amplifying the ECL intensity of ruthenium-based ECL system. Based on the excited state of and the energy transfer quenching of AP oxidation products in the luminescent system, an AP concentration-quenched drug sensor was successfully constructed. For this sensor, a wide linear dynamic range and low detection limits (5.0 × 10−7−1.0 × 10−5 mol/L and 4.8 × 10−9 mol/L, respectively) were achieved. This ECL drug sensor has excellent performance in the accurate determination of AP content, relieving the stress of the previous AP detection process, and has good reproducibility and recovery in actual sample measurements.