Miniaturized graphite sensors doped with metal-bathophenanthroline complexes for the selective potentiometric determination of uric acid in biological fluids.

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Miniaturized poly(vinyl chloride) matrix membrane sensors in an all-solid-state graphite support, responsive to urate anion, were developed. The membranes incorporate lipophilic ion-pair complexes of urate anion with ruthenium(III), iron(II), nickel(II) and copper(I) bathophenanthroline (4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline) counter cations. The sensors demonstrate a near-Nernstian response to urate over the concentration range 1 x 10(-2)-1 x 10(-5) mol l-1 and have micromolar detection limits and good selectivity properties. The response is virtually unaffected by pH changes in the range 7-10 and the response times are 5-10 s in aqueous solutions and in human serum and urine samples. A flow injection detector incorporating an iron(II) bathophenanthroline-urate graphite sensor was used for continuous monitoring of uric acid. The minimum detectable concentration was approximately 8 micrograms ml-1 and the sample throughput was approximately 120 h-1. Direct potentiometric determination of uric acid in the static and hydrodynamic modes of operation over the range 15 micrograms ml-1-1.5 mg ml-1 showed average recoveries of 98.7 and 97.8% with RSDs of 0.6 and 0.7%, respectively. Application of the method to the determination of uric acid in human serum and urine gave results that compared favourably with those obtained by the standard spectrophotometric method.