Metal-based nodes and organic ligands are used to produce metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which are remarkably porous materials with huge surface areas, uniform yet tunable pores, intriguing and controllable morphologies, and changeable surface characteristics. Many studies have been conducted with MOF-based materials, such as pristine MOFs, composites based on MOFs, and their derivatives, for gas storage and separation, energy storage and conversion, catalysis, and bio-medicine. Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs), as a typical class of MOFs, composed of transition metal cations with imidazolate linkers. Due to its pore diameters and the metal ions catalytic activity, ZIFs have attracted considerable interest in chemical research. The uses of MOFs-based materials have now been extended to the detection of various analytes for industrial, biomedical, environmental, and food applications. However, pure MOFs have some intrinsic drawbacks that limit their use for electrochemical applications, such as instability, limited conductivity, and sensitivity in aqueous solutions. But by mixing MOFs with other conductive materials, such as carbon nanostructures, to create nanocomposites, the electrochemical applications of MOFs can be realised.
In this talk, I will discuss our use of nanocomposites of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and ZIFs to develop highly sensitive and reliable electrochemical sensors for the detection of dacarbazine and 4-aminophenol. Dacarbazine is a potent chemotherapeutic drug known for its effectiveness in treating various types of cancer, while 4-AP is an intermediate chemical in the medicinal production of acetaminophen and serves as a precursor for various materials, including dyestuff, medical substances, feeding stuff, rubber, and pesticides. I will also outline how we use the nanocomposite to modify screen-printed carbon electrodes and the associated optimization for reliable electrochemical detection of both substances. Furthermore, I will discuss the successful application of the MWCNTs/ZIFs sensor for the determination of dacarbazine in chemotherapeutic injection samples and for 4-AP in water samples.