A new electrocatalytic system based on copper (II) chloride and magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles in 3D printed microfluidic flow cell for enzymeless and Low-Potential cholesterol detection

•A new system for the enzymeless electrocatalytic detection of cholesterol has been proposed.•CuCl2 in acetonitrile served as an effective low potential electrocatalyst for cholesterol oxidation.•Magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles were synthesized and applied for selective cholesterol isolation.•The developed enzymeless electrocatalytic system was validated by using of model mixtures imitating the blood serum.•Microfluidic flow cell was fabricated by 3D printing to perform cholesterol determination. The cholesterol level in blood is an important biomarker for the early diagnosis of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. This paper reports on a new enzymeless electrocatalytic system for the determination of cholesterol. Copper (II) chloride was first used for the enzymeless electrochemical oxidation of cholesterol at a low electrode potential in acetonitrile, and the mechanism for the oxidation process was proposed. Magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles were then synthesized and applied in a 3D printed microfluidic flow cell for selective cholesterol isolation and subsequent analysis. The proposed enzymeless electrocatalytic system allowed for the detection of cholesterol in model solutions with a detection limit of 4 µM and a degree of extraction of more than 90 %. The sensitivity, stability, and duration of the analysis were not inferior to analogs.