Synthesis of salen-type Schiff base metal complexes, electropolymerization on graphite electrode surface and investigation of electrocatalytic effects

Abstract

2-Aminobenzylamine-based unsymmetrical salen-type Schiff base and its Cu (II), Ni (II), Co (II) and Fe (III) metal complexes were synthesized and their structures were investigated by various spectroscopic methods. The electropolymerization of the synthesized metal complexes were achieved on the graphite electrode. The electropolymerization process was conducted by cyclic voltammetry (CV) in a 0.15M LiClO4/Acetonitrile as supporting electrolyte medium. Characterization of the polymer coated electrodes were carried out by CV, SEM, EDX and UV–Vis techniques. The electrocatalytic activities of graphite electrodes modified with Schiff-base metal complex were investigated in the determination of compounds such as Dopamine (DA), Catechol (CC), Cysteine (Cys) and Uric Acid (UA). These studies showed that the salen-type Schiff base-Ni(II)-modified graphite electrode gave the best result in the determination of catechol and dopamine. Square wave voltammetry showed a linear response in the range of 0.09–0.35μM and 0.22–0.58μM with LoD of 0.03μM and 0.06μM for CC and DA, respectively.