Sensitive electrochemical sensor of levofloxacin using boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrode modified with Ti3C2TX (MXene) material

Overuse of levofloxacin (LEV) is often associated with bacterial resistance and serious health problems, underscoring the need for reliable sensing and monitoring of LEV molecules. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate LEV using boron-doped diamond (BDD) and boron-doped diamond modified with MXene (Ti₃C₂T_X) (BDD-MXene) electrode. The successful deposition of MXene on the BDD surface was confirmed using scanning electron microscope (SEM). Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and square wave voltammetry (SWV) methods were also applied to evaluate the electrochemical behavior. The results showed that both electrodes had a linear response in the range of 30-100 μM. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQ) were found to be 1.0 × 10^-⁶ M and 3.37 × 10^-⁶ M for bare-BDD, while on BDD-MXene, the values were 3.90 × 10^-⁷ M and 1.30 × 10^-⁶ M, respectively. Furthermore, both electrodes showed good responses on selectivity tests with glucose and another fluoroquinolone antibiotic such as ciprofloxacin. The results also indicated good precision with %RSD less than 5%. In real sample applications using wastewater, bare-BDD and BDD-MXene produced excellent %recovery of 92.96% and 101.29%, respectively.