Cerium doped magnetite nanoparticles for highly sensitive detection of metronidazole via chemiluminescence assay.

Cerium doped magnetite nanoparticle (CDM) was synthesized via a co-precipitation method and used as the co-reactant of luminol-K3Fe(CN)6 chemiluminescent system. The physical-chemical features of CDM were studied by XPS, XRD, HRTEM, FESEM, VSM, BET, and FTIR analyses. This simple and highly sensitive nanoprobe enabled the determination of minor concentrations of metronidazole (MNZ). Owing to the quenching efficacy of MNZ in the studied chemiluminescence system, a linear range of 3.47 × 10-6-9.37 × 10-5 mol/L was obtained with a limit of detection of 3.91 × 10-7 mol/L. This biosensor was used for MNZ detection in human serum samples, which was highly efficient. The outcomes of this study give credit to the proposed biosensor to be applied for detection of MNZ in biological samples.