Facile synthesis of nickel@carbon nanorod composite for simultaneously electrochemical detection of dopamine and uric acid

Abstract

Nickel nanoparticles loaded with carbon nanorods (Ni@CNRs) were facile synthesized by pyrolysis of a Ni-based coordination compound. The constructed Ni@CNRs hybrid showed a high special surface area with Ni nanoparticles uniformly distributing on its surface. It is expected that the high special surface area of Ni@CNRs may increase the exposure of active sites, whereas the uniformly distribution of Ni nanoparticles may shorten the gap between Ni nanoparticles and CNRs, and then speeds up the electron migration. Then, Ni@CNRs were used as effective electrochemical sensor for simultaneous dopamine (DA) and uric acid (UA) detection. It is found that Ni@CNRs modified electrode exhibited two linear ranges of 0.5–30 μM and 35–100 μM for both single detection of DA and UA. The detection limits (S/N = 3) were calculated to be 0.056 μM for DA and 0.166 μM for UA, respectively. In addition, due to its high sensitivity and stability, Ni@CNRs was successfully applied for DA and UA analysis in human urine. These results show that Ni@CNRs is an effective electrode material for DA and UA detection. This work provides an effective strategy for exploring new electrical sensing materials.