Abstract:
Glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was modified by dropping a suspension of graphene oxide (GO), multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) and carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS) onto its surface to obtain the modified electrode of MWNTs/GO/CMCS/GCE. Electrochemical behaviors of NO
2- and
L-tryptophan (
L-Trp) at the modified electrode were studied by cyclic voltammetry (CV). The effective area of the modified electrode was found to be 3.243 0×10
-6cm
2, which was significantly increased as compared with the bare electrode and thus electron transfer was accelerated and adsorption-enrichment of the analytes was facilitated. As shown by the results, significant electro-catalytic oxidations of NO
2- (in PBS of pH 4.7) and
L-Trp (in acetate buffer of pH 4.0) were observed at the modified electrode separately, and linear relationships between values of the oxidation peak current and the concentration of NO
2- in the range of 1.0×10
-7 to 3.5×10
-1mol·L
-1 and of
L-Trp in the range of 1.0×10
-8 to 2.7×10
-1mol·L
-1 were obtained, with detection limits (3S/N) of 1.2×10
-8mol·L
-1, and 5.0×10
-8mol·L
-1 respectively. NO
2- in a sample of rotten cos lettuce and
L-Trp in a simulated sample were determined by the proposed CV method, giving results in consistency with those found by UV-spectrophotometry (for NO
2-) and by fluorospectrophotometry (for
L-Trp).