Towards disposable sensors for drug quality control: Dextromethorphan screen- printed electrodes

A simple, rapid, reliable, and reproducible method for mass production of disposable sensors using screen-printing technology is described. Homemade printing has been characterized and optimized on the basis of effects of the modifier and plasticizers. The fabricated bi-electrode potentiometric strip containing both working and reference electrode was used as dextromethorphan (DXM) sensor. The proposed sensors worked satisfactorily in the concentration range from 10⁻⁵ to 10⁻² mol L⁻¹ with detection limit reaching 6 × 10⁻⁶ mol L⁻¹ and adequate shelf life of 8 months. DXM was determined in pharmaceutical formulations under batch and flow injection analysis (FIA) conditions with sampling output 120 h⁻¹.