Surface exploration of a room-temperature ionic liquid-chitin composite film decorated with electrochemically deposited PdFeNi trimetallic alloy nanoparticles by pattern recognition: an elegant approach to developing a novel biotin biosensor.

In this study, a novel biosensing system for the determination of biotin (BTN) based on electrodeposition of palladium-iron-nickel (PdFeNi) trimetallic alloy nanoparticles (NPs) onto a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) modified with a room-temperature ionic liquid (RTIL)-chitin (Ch) composite film (PdFeNi/ChRTIL/GCE) is established. NPs have a wide range of applications in science and technology and their sizes are often measured using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) or X-ray diffraction. Here, we used a pattern recognition method (digital image processing, DIP) for measuring particle size distributions (PSDs) from scanning electron microscopic (SEM) images in the presence of an uneven background. Different depositions were performed by varying the number of cyclic potential scans (N) during electroreduction step. It was observed that the physicochemical properties of the deposits were correlated to the performance of the PdFeNi/ChRTIL/GCE with respect to BTN assay. The best results were obtained for eight electrodeposition cyclic scans, where small-sized particles (19.54 ± 6.27 nm) with high density (682 particles µm(-2)) were obtained. Under optimized conditions, a linear range from 2.0 to 44.0 × 10(-9) mol L(-1) and a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.6 × 10(-9) mol L(-1) were obtained. The PdFeNi/ChRTIL nanocomposite showed excellent compatibility, enhanced electron transfer kinetics, large electroactive surface area, and was highly sensitive, selective, and stable toward BTN determination. Finally, the PdFeNi/ChRTIL/GCE was satisfactorily applied to the determination of BTN in infant milk powder, liver, and egg yolk samples.