Influence of a polymer membrane on the electrochemical determination of insulin in nanomodified screen printed carbon electrodes

Abstract Diabetes mellitus can be considered one of the most widespread diseases globally. Hence, the diabetes research is currently focused on developing an effective, low-cost sensor having high stability and suitable analytical characteristics. Screen printed carbon electrodes (SPCEs) embody ideal candidates for insulin determination due to the small area of the working electrode eliminating the solution volume required for the given purpose. Modification of SPCEs by using nanoparticles resulted in an increase of the working electrode surface area and formation of a higher number of active species. The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of a chitosan membrane on the electrochemical determination of insulin on NiO nanoparticles (NiONPs) and multi-walled nanotube (MWCNTs) modified SPCE (NiONPs/MWCNTs/SPCE). This study is primarily conceived to compare the analytical characteristics and stability of NiONPs/chitosan-MWCNTs/SPCE and NiONPs/MWCNTs/SPCE. An electrode modified with chitosan displays a wider linear range, one of 0.25 μM - 5 μM ( R 2 0.997); a lower limit of detection, 94 nM; a high sensitivity (0.021 μA/μM) and better stability than that of an electrode without chitosan. According to these characteristics, the polymer is considered a necessary compound of the electrochemical insulin sensor, improving the sensor's analytical characteristics.