Amperometric Biomedical Sensor for the Determination of Nitric Oxide Using an Electrochemically Activated and Modified Pencil Graphite Electrode

Abstract

A disposable and low-cost pencil graphite electrode was activated by an electrochemical method and a novel metal nanoparticle-polymer nanocomposite film was fabricated and modified on its surface. The surface morphology and elemental composition of the electrodes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. The modified electrode showed electrocatalytic ability toward NO oxidation and was applied for sensing. The electrochemical mechanism was characterized. The current corresponding to the oxidation peak increased linearly from 10 nmol/L to 5.7 µmol/L NO with a detection limit of 3.6 nmol/L at a signal-to-noise ratio equal to 3. The nanocomposite film electrode was successfully used to monitor NO released by murine neuroblastoma cells.

Keywords:

• Electrochemical activation
• electrochemical biomedical sensing
• nanocomposite film
• nitric oxide
• pencil graphite electrode

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61501526, 21804146 and 22004134), the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (Nos. 2020CFB313 and 2018CFC836), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, South-Central University for Nationalities (Nos. CZY20006, CZY19040, CZY18028 and CZQ18014) and the China Scholarships Council (No. 201807780004).