Fine steps of electrocatalytic oxidation and sensitive detection of some amino acids on copper nanoparticles

The electrocatalytic oxidation of five amino acids-glycine, aspartic acid, cysteine, glutamic acid, and tyrosine-on two copper-based electrodes comprising copper microparticle-modified carbon paste electrode (m-CPE) and copper nanoparticle-modified CPE (n-CPE) was investigated. In the voltammograms recorded using m-CPE, a single anodic peak related to the oxidation of amino acids appeared and was related to the electrocatalytic oxidation of the amino acids via the electrogenerated Cu(III) species. Using n-CPE, however, two overlapped anodic peaks in the voltammograms appeared and were related to two fine tunable steps of the oxidation process. The currents of the two peaks were controlled by diffusion and were confirmed by chronoamperometric measurements. The amino acids were oxidized on n-CPE at higher rates and at lower potentials compared with m-CPE. This was attributed to the nanosize of copper nanoparticles. Some primary linear-chain amines and primary branched-chain amines were oxidized on the copper-based electrodes as markers. The catalytic rate constants, the transfer coefficients, and the diffusion coefficients for the amino acids are reported. Simple, sensitive, and time-saving sensing procedures in both batch and flow systems were developed for the analysis of the amino acids, and the corresponding analytical parameters are reported.