Doubly Modified Electrodes for the Selective Determination of Dopamine in the Presence of Interfering Species

In this paper, we describe the double modification of the glassy carbon electrode surface with two polymer layers for the selective determination of dopamine. The first layer was the electropolymerized macrocyclic nickel complex acting as an electrocatalyst for the dopamine oxidation and the second layer the polyurethane benzyl L‐glutamate (PUBLG) for screening interfering species. Hydrolyzed PUBLG (PU‐C) showed a better screening effect. Thus prepared GC/Ni(II) complex film/PU‐C electrodes exhibited improved selectivity and better performance than unmodified counterparts, with minimum passivation even in the presence of large excess of interferents. Under optimal conditions, these electrodes showed a linear response over a dopamine concentration range of 2.5×10−7 and 3.0×10−5 M with a correlation coefficient of 0.999 and detection limit (at S/N=3) of 8.0×10−8 M. The recoveries of dopamine in the 5‐fold diluted human urine sample were 96.9% for 4 measurements. The rate constant for the dopamine oxidation measured by the rotating disk electrode was found to be 1.1×10−3 cm s−1.