A Smart Portable Sensor With Ratio and Dual-Mode for In Situ Detection of Nicotine in Tobacco Leaves
Zhanning Liang, Shiyu Hu, Yi Peng, Cong Cheng, Jian Luo, Lei Yang, Min Yang, Yu Xia, Yan Zhao, Zhaohong Su
Abstract
A smart portable sensor with ratio and dual-mode for in situ determination of nicotine (NIC) in tobacco leaves was reported. Activated screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) was used as a sensing platform. Paracetamol (PA) was used as a ratiometric reference. Current and potential dual-signal output was applied as dual-mode. The scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, square-wave voltammetry, and NIC morphological fitting and theoretical calculation were used to study the sensor. Under the amperometric mode, the linear range of NIC is 10– <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$800 ~\mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula> mol/L, and the detection limit is <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1.72 ~\mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula> mol/L (S/N = 3). And under the potential mode, the linear range of NIC is 10– <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$500 ~\mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula> mol/L, and the detection limit is <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.02 ~\mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula> mol/L (S/N = 3). In addition, the proposed sensor has been applied to in situ determination of NIC in tobacco leaves with acceptable relative derivation ranging from 5.04% to 7.63% between the sensor and high-performance liquid chromatography.