Selective and simultaneous sensing of ascorbic acid, dopamine and uric acid based on nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon

Development of novel sensing nanostructures for facile, economical and fast applications has attracted more and more interest. Herein, a nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon (NMC) was synthesized by pyrolyzing a mixture of melamine and carbon black at a low-temperature (600 °C) and exploited for the simultaneous sensing of ascorbic acid (AA), dopamine (DA) and uric acid (UA). The as-made NMC exhibits a rougher surface and smaller size than carbon black. Such a one-pot method is very versatile, quick and inexpensive, easy to handle (solvent-, catalyst-, and template-free) and scalable. The oxidation potentials of the NMC/GCE negatively shift and the current responses are enhanced greatly towards the oxidation of AA, DA and UA thanks to the large surface area, mesoporous structure and N-doped active sites. The peak to peak potential separations are 258 and 410 mV for AA-DA and AA-UA. The linear ranges of AA, DA and UA are 5-4500 μM, 0.005-35 μM and 0.5-3500 μM, respectively, and their detection limits are 0.15 μM (AA), 1.6 nM (DA) and 0.15 μM (UA). Meanwhile, the NMC/GCE exhibits satisfactory stability and anti-interference ability. These results show that NMC could be a promising candidate material for electrochemical sensor construction.