Natural Melanin Nanoparticle-decorated Screen-printed Carbon Electrode: Performance Test for Amperometric Determination of Hexavalent Chromium as Model Trace

A biosensor was prepared with natural melanin nanoparticles (MNP) decorated on a screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE). Hexavalent chromium was selected as a well-known heavy metal ion to be detected for testing the performance of novel biosensor. Natural MNP was extracted from cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) ink. Surface decoration of SPCEs with MNP was performed by two different methods. The first one was layer-by-layer assembly (LBL-A) for different cycle times(n). In the second one, plasma treatment of SPCE incorporated with evaporation-induced self-assembly (EI-SA) techniques including different incubation times in MNP solutions. The performance of both modified SPCEs were tested for amperometric detection of Cr(VI) in various water samples, and peak reduction of Cr(VI) was determined at 0.33 V. Amperometric results showed wide linear ranges of 0.1–2 μM and 0.1–5 μM of Cr(VI) for SPCEs modified with 14n-LBL-A and 12h-EI-SA, respectively. The sensitivities of SPCEs modified with 14n-LBL-A and 12h-EI-SA techniques were 0.27 μA μM⁻¹ and 0.52 μA μM⁻¹, respectively. In addition, both modified SPCEs selectively detected Cr(VI) in a model aqueous system composed of certain other heavy metals and minerals, and tap and lake water samples. The LOD and LOQ values for 12h-EI-SA were 0.03 μM and 0.1 μM, respectively. This showed that MNP-modified-SPCEs generated via EI-SA techniques have the potential to be an alternative to conventional detection methods such as ICP-MS.