Electrostatic repulsion strategy for high-sensitive and selective determination of dopamine in the presence of uric acid and ascorbic acid

Abstract

In this work, poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate)-functionalized three-dimensional graphene (PFSG) composites were realized via a facile and green strategy. The nanocomposite was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, ultraviolet and visible spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and electrochemical method. An electroanalytical sensor of dopamine (DA) with high sensitivity and selectivity was fabricated based on PFSG modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE). Under the optimum conditions, the negatively charged PFSG composites exhibit strong electrostatic attraction for DA and electrostatic repulsion to the negatively charged ascorbic acid (AA) and uric acid (UA) molecules. Such electrostatic interaction hindered the enrichment of AA and UA on the surface of PSFG/GCE, which make a higher selectivity for the DA even in the presence of 120-fold AA and UA. Owing to the enhanced electron transfer rate and the stronger surface attraction, the current signal of DA on PFSG/GCE was about 160 times enhanced compared with the bare electrode. There was a good linear relationship between the reduction peak current of DA and concentration across the range of 0.002–2.0 μmol L−1 and 2.0–10.0 μmol L−1 with the limit of 0.8 nmol L−1. Further, the PFSG/GCE was applied to the detection of DA in human serum samples. This biosensor is simple, sensitive, selective and highly stable, which provided a new design strategy and a valuable tool to detect DA in complex samples.