An enzyme-free interdigitated electrode for ketamine detection

Ketamine is an anesthetic, which when used wrongly would affect judgment and behavior, increasing risks to individual such as unwanted or risky sexual behavior. This study reports the development of an admittance- and capacitance-spectroscopy-based sensor to detect ketamine in solution, such as whiskey, a popular alcoholic drink. The result confirms the proposed method is capable of detecting the presence of ketamine in whiskey, in concentration as low as 6.25 ng/μL, by using admittance and capacitance measured at 6.75 MHz, as well as quantifying the measured admittance (sensitivity: 300 μΩ−1/Log (ng/μL); limit of detection (LOD): 0.16 ng/μL) or capacitance data (sensitivity: 2 nF/Log (ng/μL); LOD: 0.73 ng/μL) at 18 kHz and 7.69 MHz, respectively.