High performance portable sensor based on excellent conductive composite MXene@Ag-MEL for detection of gallic acid in...

Rapid and accurate detection of bioactive phenolic compounds in food is crucial for assessing nutritional value and ensuring quality. Gallic acid (GA) is a naturally occurring polyphenolic compound found in plant-based foods such as grapes, mangoes, and tea leaves. It possesses significant antioxidants, antibacterial, and anticancer properties, making it a key target in research on food nutrition and functional components. However, many sensors are limited by slow surface dynamics, so the development of advanced sensing materials is a great challenge. In this study, a high specific surface area MEL zeolite (MEL) is prepared (471.24 m² g^-1) and complexed with highly conductive Ag species and two-dimensional MXene nanosheets (MXene) to construct a novel screen-printed sensing platform (MXene/Ag/MEL/chitosan (CS)/screen-printed electrode (SPE). The novel sensor notably possessed excellent GA detection performance, exhibiting an extremely low limit of detection (LOD = 0.5 μM) and a wide detection range (1 μM-50 mM). Further, a portable GA sensing system is prepared by integrating the above screen-printed platform with miniaturized circuits, which showed similar analytical results to the standard high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method (the recovery rate ranges from 95.75% to 97.93%). This work not only presents advanced sensing material but also provides a practical and convenient platform for rapid food analysis and dietary assessment.