Simultaneous determination of levodopa, NADH, and tryptophan using carbon paste electrode modified with carbon nanotubes and ferrocenedicarboxylic acid

Abstract

The redox response of a modified carbon nanotube paste electrode of ferrocenedicarboxylic acid was investigated. Cyclic voltammetry, differential pulse voltammetry, and chronoamperometry were used to investigate the electrochemical behavior of levodopa (LD) at modified electrode. Under the optimized conditions (pH 5.0), the modified electrode showed high electrocatalytic activity toward LD oxidation; the overpotential for the oxidation of LD was decreased by more than 190 mV, and the corresponding peak current increased significantly. Differential pulse voltammetric peak currents of LD increased linearly with its concentrations at the range of 0.04 to 1,100 μM, and the detection limit (3σ) was determined to be 12 nM. The diffusion coefficient \( \left( {D = {9}.{2} \times {1}{0^{ - {6}}}{\hbox{c}}{{\hbox{m}}^2}/{\hbox{s}}} \right) \) and transfer coefficient (α = 0.49) of LD were also determined. Mixture of LD, NADH, and tryptophan (TRP) can be separated from one another by differential pulse voltammetry. These conditions are sufficient to allow determination of LD, NADH, and TRP both individually and simultaneously. The modified electrode showed good reproducibility, remarkable long-term stability, and especially good surface renewability by simple mechanical polishing. The results showed that this electrode could be used as an electrochemical sensor for determination of LD, NADH, and TRP in real samples such as urine and water samples.