Preparation and Characterization of Bhant Leaves-derived Nitrogen-doped Carbon and its Use as an Electrocatalyst for Detecting Ketoconazole

In this study, the electrocatalytic characteristics of nitrogen-doped carbon (NDC) prepared from Clerodendrum Infortunatum L leaves on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) surface was evaluated with regards to its ability to detect the electroactive drug ketoconazole (KCZ). The NDC was prepared by carrying out a simple pyrolysis of dry powder of the leaves at 850 °C. The prepared NDC was characterized using field-emission scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis, and was then used as an electrode material. The performance of the electrochemical KCZ sensor with the NDC-modified glassy carbon electrode (NDC/GCE) was found to be optimal when using PBS buffer at pH 3 and a concentration of 0.1 mg/ml of NDC in the conjugate with Nafion polymer. Under these conditions, the NDC/GCE displayed a KCZ detection limit of 3 μM and a linear dependence of its response on KCZ concentration over a wide range of KCZ concentrations from 47 μM to 752 μM (R²=0.9742). These results confirmed the potential of NDC as an electrocatalyst.