Development of MoS 2 flower-adorned pencil graphite electrode for electro-kinetic investigations and voltammetric quantification of anti-epileptic drug levetiracetam

The fast, accurate, and affordable determination of the anti-epileptic drug levetiracetam (LEV) is the need of time for human health. In this study, a novel electrochemical sensor platform was proposed for the cost-effective and sensitive determination of the levetiracetam based on molybdenum sulfide nano-flower-adorned pencil graphite electrode (MoS 2 /PGE). The nano-flowers of MoS 2 were prepared by a cost-effective one-step facile hydrothermal method and the morphology of synthesized MoS 2 micro-flowers was characterized via FESEM, XRD, and EDS techniques. The various electro-kinetics parameters like diffusion coefficient ( D o =1.41 × 10 −5 cm 2 s −1 ), heterogeneous rate constant ( K h = 9.04 × 10 −4 cm s −1 ), electron transfer coefficient ( α = 0.66), the effective surface area of the fabricated electrode ( A = 0.0767 cm 2 ), and surface coverage ( Γ o = 2.98 × 10 −11 mol cm −2 ) were evaluated for the oxidation of LEV at MoS 2 /PGE employing voltammetric techniques. The oxidative peak current in the optimized square wave stripping voltammetry varies linearly with LEV concentration within the range of 72.0 to 130.0 µM with detection limit (LOD) value of 14.20 µM. The proposed MoS 2 /PGE platform provides a sensitive, low cost and eco-friendly tool for the rapid detection of LEV in clinical samples. Graphical abstract