Development and application of an electrochemiluminescent flow-injection cell based on CdTe quantum dots modified electrode for high sensitive determination of dopamine

Analyst. 2011 Oct 7;136(19):4070-4. doi: 10.1039/c1an15458c. Epub 2011 Aug 19.

Abstract

A nano-liter sized flow-cell is developed for constructing a flow injection analysis (FIA) system with electrochemiluminescent (ECL) detection. A sensitive ECL electrode is applied as the working electrode in this flow-cell. It is obtained by immobilizing the composite of CdTe quantum dots (QDs), carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and chitosan (Chit) on indium tin oxide (ITO) glass. The CdTe QDs were synthesized in our lab and possessed a high quantum yield. It has been demonstrated as an efficient anodic ECL material with the triethylamine (TEA) as the co-reactant. The flow-cell gives the stable ECL background under optimized conditions for parameters such as electrolytic pulse, concentration of TEA and flow rate, etc. The sensitive ECL quenching response of dopamine (DA) is realized on this FIA system within the linear range from 10 pM to 4 nM and a detection limit as low as 3.6 pM. It is practically used to determine the neurotransmitters in cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF) with DA as the index and with an average recovery of 94%.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cadmium Compounds / chemistry*
  • Dopamine / analysis*
  • Electrochemistry
  • Electrodes
  • Flow Injection Analysis*
  • Luminescent Measurements*
  • Quantum Dots*
  • Tellurium / chemistry*

Substances

  • Cadmium Compounds
  • Tellurium
  • cadmium telluride
  • Dopamine