Electrochemical polymerization of toluidine blue o and its electrocatalytic activity toward NADH oxidation

A stable electroactive thin film of poly(toluidine blue o) (PTOB) has been deposited on the surface of a glassy carbon electrode by cyclic voltammetry from an aqueous solution containing toluidine blue o (TOB). Cyclic voltammograms of PTOB indicate the presence of two redox couples and the formal potential shifts linearly in the negative direction with increasing solution pH with a slope of 58 and 54 mV per pH unit for couple I and couple II, respectively. The PTOB modified glassy carbon electrode shows electrocatalytic activity toward NADH oxidation in phosphate buffer solution (pH 7.0), with an overpotential ca. 470 mV lower than that of the bare electrode. The catalytic rate constant of the modified glassy carbon electrode for the oxidation of NADH is determined by cyclic voltammetry and rotating disk electrode measurements. The experimental results indicate that the electrode can be used as a detector for NADH determination with a linear range of 5.0x10(-6) to 2.0x10(-3) mol l(-1) and the detection limits of (5.0+/-0.3)x10(-7) mol l(-1) at optimal conditions.