| Posted: Jan 22, 2015 |
Graphene nanosensor determines caffeine and other components in tea
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(Nanowerk News) Researchers from University of Tehran used a simple, cost-effective and eco-friendly method to produce a sensor based on graphene nano-sheets with high sensitivity and simultaneously measure useful components of tea (RSC Advances, "Simultaneous determination of theophylline, theobromine and caffeine in different tea beverages by graphene-oxide based ultrasonic-assisted dispersive micro solid-phase extraction combined with HPLC-UV").
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Tea is a traditional drink in many countries. Alkaloid compounds, including methylxanthine, are known as the cause of useful properties of the drink such as decreasing the risk of cancer and cardiovascular diseases, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammation and anti-overweighting. Theophylline, theobromine and caffeine existing in tea are among the type of methylxanthines that are found in almost all types of teas.
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The aim of the research was to produce a sensor and measure the abovementioned components to evaluate the quality of the tea. Finding a pattern for the useful components of home-made tea and comparing it with the foreign-made products is among other objectives of the research.
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According to Dr. Hassan Sereshti, chemical composition and the mechanism to process tea provides the required information to understand therapeutic characteristics of the tea. However, no scientific and reliable method has so far been presented to study the quality of tea. Therefore, the results of the research can be used for the production of domestically-made tea and to improve its quality. The development of the method and taking samples from tea products at various geographical areas at different times of the process result in obtaining a national standard pattern for tea.
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Due to the potentials of graphene oxide, this sorbent can be used as a suitable method for the measurement and separation of polar and hydrophilic molecule samples from aqueous solutions.
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