Facile synthesis of novel spherical covalent organic frameworks integrated with Pt nanoparticles and multiwalled carbon nanotubes as electrochemical probe for tanshinol drug detection

Abstract In this work, a novel spherical covalent organic frameworks (COFs) was developed via a simple and facile room-temperature solution route. Via in situ growth of Pt nanoparticles (PtNPs) on the surface of COFs, PtNPs@COFs composites with improved electroactivity were successfully prepared. After incorporation of MWCNTs into the composites, the PtNPs@COFs-MWCNTs nanocomposites that possess excellent electrical conductivity and unprecedented catalytic performance were formed and utilized as novel electrode materials for fabrication of an electrochemical tanshinol sensor. Under the optimum conditions, this electrochemical sensor presented excellent electrochemical properties to tanshinol with a wide linear range from 0.002 to 1.1 mM, a high sensitivity up to 10.089 μA mM-1, and a low detection limit (LOD) of 0.018 μM (S/N=3). Moreover, due to the high selectivity, excellent stability and good repeatability, the constructed sensor was successfully applied to measure the amount of tanshinol in real medicinal samples with satisfactory results. Our findings pave the way to utilize COFs as the structural component for design of sensing platforms and extend the applications of COFs in catalysis, analysis and drug testing.