Selective detection of dopamine combining multilayers of conducting polymers with gold nanoparticles

Electrodes based on the combination of three-layered films formed by two different conducting polymers and gold nanoparticles have been developed for the selective voltammetric determination of dopamine in mixtures with ascorbic acid and uric acid and human urine samples with real interferents. Voltammetric studies of solution mixtures indicate that electrodes formed by alternated layers of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxithiophene) (internal and external layer) and poly(N-methylpyrrole) (intermediate layer) show the best performance in terms of sensitivity and resolution. Furthermore, the sensitivity of such three-layered electrodes increases only slightly after coating its surface with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), indicating that the catalytic effect typically played by AuNPs in the oxidation of dopamine is less effective in this case. Electrochemical pretreatments based on the application of consecutive oxidation-reduction cycles to electrodes before the detection process have been found to improve the selectivity without altering the sensitivity. On the other hand, the flux of dopamine to the three-layered surface increases linearly with the scan rate. The detection limit for these electrodes is around 10 μM DA in mixtures with uric acid, ascorbic acid, and cetaminophen, decreasing to 2-3 μM in the absence of such interferents. The utility of three-layered electrodes as sensors has also been demonstrated by determining DA in human samples with real interferents.