A novel approach for the determination of paracetamol based on the reduction of N-acetyl-p-benzoquinoneimine formed on the electrochemically treated pencil graphite electrode

A novel approach was proposed for the simple and rapid electrochemical determination of paracetamol (PC) in the presence of uric acid in body fluids. The voltammetric determination of PC is based on the electrochemical reduction of N-acetyl-p-benzoquinoneimine formed simultaneously on the electrochemically treated pencil graphite (ETPG) electrode during the measurement. ETPG electrodes were prepared by the potential cycling between −0.3 V and +2.0 V in 0.1 M H₃PO₄ solution. The electrochemical performance of the ETPG electrode was evaluated by adsorptive transfer stripping differential pulse voltammetry (ATSDPV). The resulting sensor showed good performance for the determination of PC in human blood serum samples with a linear range of 0.05–2.5 μM and a highly reproducible response (RSD of 3.1%). The calculated detection limit was 2.5 nM (S/N = 3). The proposed method does not require any sample pretreatment, prevents the interference of uric acid and allows the determination of PC directly in blood serum samples.