ELECTROANALYTICAL APPLICATIONS OF CARBOXYL-MODIFIED CARBON NANOTUBE FILM ELECTRODES

The electrochemical behavior of a carboxyl-modified carbon nanotube films was investigated to explore its possibility in electroanalytical applicaton. Cyclic voltammetry of quinone was conducted in 1mol/L Na2SO4, which showed a stable, quasi-reversible voltammetric response for quinone / hydroquinone, and the anodic and the cathodic peak potentials were 0.657V and -0.029V (vs. SCE) at a scan rate of 0.1V.s-1, respectively. Both anodic and cathodic peak currents depended linearly on the square root of the scan rate over the range of 0.01-0.5V.s-1, which suggested that the process of the electrode reactions was diffusion-controlled. Carboxyl-modified carbon nanotube electrodes made it possible to determine low level of dopamine selectively in the presence of a large excess of ascorbic acid in acidic media using derivative voltammetry. The results obtained were discussed in details. This work demonstrates the potential of carboxyl-modified carbon nanotube electrodes for electroanalytical applications.