Triethylamine-controlled Cu-BTC frameworks for electrochemical sensing fish freshness

Abstract The simultaneous determination of xanthine (XA) and hypoxanthine (HXA) has been proved to be a feasible approach for the assessment of fish freshness. In this study, copper(II) nitrate and 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid (H3BTC) were used as precursors to prepare various Cu-BTC frameworks with the addition of various amounts of triethylamine at room temperature. The characterization of X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy testified that the obtained materials are Cu-BTC frameworks. However, the amount of triethylamine had significant effects on the morphology, active response area and electron transfer ability of Cu-BTC frameworks. The oxidation behavior of XA and HXA demonstrated that the prepared Cu-BTC frameworks exhibited higher sensing activity, with greatly-enhanced oxidation signals. More importantly, the amount of triethylamine obviously affected the accumulation capacity and signal enhancement ability of Cu-BTCs toward XA and HXA, as confirmed from double potential step chronocoulometry. Based on the triethylamine-tuned signal amplification strategy of Cu-BTC frameworks, a highly-sensitive and simple electrochemical sensing system was developed for the assessment of fish freshness by simultaneous detection of XA and HXA. The developed sensing method was used in practical samples, and the results were validated by high-performance liquid chromatography.