Development of tungsten trioxide nano-flakes intercalated on tannic acid-functionalized reduced graphene oxide for flexible acebutolol sensors.

Acebutolol (ACE) is commonly used to treat hypertension and high blood pressure. Large doses of ACE can have adverse effects with potentially life-threatening consequences. It is, therefore, essential to develop a simple, low-cost, reliable, and reproducible device for detecting ACE in biofluids. This study explores the potential of unique two-dimensional nano-flakes, such as tungsten trioxide (WO ₃ ). Graphene oxide (GO) typically exhibits lower electrical conductivity than pristine graphene due to the presence of oxygen-containing functional groups that interfere with the π-conjugated structure. Functionalizing GO with tannic acid (TA) can partially reinstate the π-conjugation and limit the amount of oxygen, resulting in enhanced electrical conductivity. Ultrasonic techniques were utilized to create WO ₃ NFs@TA-rGO, and a range of spectroscopic and microscopic methods were applied to examine the formation of the resulting WO ₃ NFs@TA-rGO nanocomposites. Under optimal conditions, modified sensors resulted in lower limits of detection (0.0055 μM) and good sensitivity (0.40 μA μM ^-1  cm ^-2 ). They also exhibited a broad linear range spanning from 0.009 to 568.6 μM. Fabricated sensors have significant anti-interference properties with high specificity and excellent storage stability (RSD = 4.3 %), reproducibility (RSD = 3.9 %), and repeatability (RSD = 3.3 %). Ultimately, the sensor's efficacy was confirmed through the successful detection of ACE in biological samples (with recoveries ranging from 99.1 to 99.6 %). Lastly, this study highlights the substantial potential of ACE detection and extends its applications in biomedical diagnostics and pharmaceutical research.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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