Facile Determination of Anesthetic Drug Propofol Based on Electrochemiluminescence Quenching
Abstract A new facile method for determination of anesthetic drug propofol based on quenching of electrochemiluminescence (ECL) was presented. When propofol was introduced to tris(2,2’-bipyridyl)-ruthenium (II)/tripropylamine system, an obvious decrease of ECL signal was observed due to the energy transfer between the excited state of Ru(bpy)32+ * and the electro-oxidation products of propofol. Under optimum conditions, the inhibited ECL response was linearly with the propofol concentration in the range of 20–8000 ng/mL with a detection limit of 10 ng/mL (S/N = 3). Moreover, the proposed sensing platform showed good reproducibility with relative standard deviation of 5.6% for 5 µg/mL propofol (n = 5). Finally, the proposed method was applied for detection of propofol in human serum with satisfactory recoveries. As a sensitive, rapid, simple and cost-effective method, the sensing platform holds great potential in determination of propofol.