Caracterização espectroscópica, microscópica e eletroquímica de eletrodos modificados com diferentes nanotubos de carbono para a detecção de catecol e dopamina

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have various applications due to their properties with emphasis to high chemical resistance, low density and high electrical conductivity. Within Analytical Chemistry, the electrocatalytic properties of these nanomaterials are highlighted towards the the surface modification of working electrodes, and thus act as electrochemical sensors. This work investigates the use of three types of CNTs, a single-walled (SWCNT) and two double walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNT), one of these of smaller length (S-DWCNT), for the modification of a glassy carbon electrode (GCE). Initially, the functionalized and non-functionalized CNTs were characterized aiming to analyze the possible changes obtained by functionalization process. The characterizations were made through infrared (IR) and Raman spectroscopies. The morphologies of these materials were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The thermal stability was observed by thermogravimetric analysis. After the step of characterizing the CNTs, it was investigated the electrochemical behavior of the phenolic compounds catechol (CT) and dopamine (DP) on electrodes modified with three different CNTs. The study of pH of the electrolyte showed best results in terms of current for HClO4 solution. Study of cyclic voltammetry scan rate indicated that the electrochemical oxidation processes are controlled either by diffusion of the species to the electrode or by adsorptive processes. The amperometric detection analysis of the species using a batch injection system (BIA) was carried out using three CNTs modified electrodes. It was obtained wide linear ranges of 1-1000 μmol L- 1 for both CT and DP in all cases. For CT and DP, low standard deviations were obtained for consecutive injections (n = 15) of approximately 1.0% on GCE, SWCNT, DWCNT and S-DWCNT. Analytical frequencies of 135 h-1 were obtained employing the modified electrodes, while in GCE was obtained 105 h-1. Low detection limits for CT (0.0093; 0.0136; 0.0715 μmol L-1) and DP (0.0145; 0.0493; 0.1743 μmol L-1) were obtained in SWCNT, DWCNT and S-DWCNT, respectively, while in GCE 0.867 and 1.034 μmol L-1 were obtained for CT and DP, respectively. All results proved to be promising, with wide linear ranges and low DLs, thus manifesting that the modifications of GCE with CNTs were efficient and resulted in more sensitive electrochemical sensors for the analytes investigated.