Simultaneous voltammetric measurement of ascorbic acid, epinephrine and uric acid at a glassy carbon electrode modified with caffeic acid

A stable electroactive thin film of poly(caffeic acid) has been deposited on the surface of a glassy carbon electrode by potentiostatic technique in an aqueous solution containing caffeic acid. Poly(caffeic acid) was used as a modified electrode for the detection of ascorbic acid (AA), epinephrine (EP), uric acid (UA) and their mixture by cyclic voltammetry. This modified electrode exhibits potent and persistent electron-mediating behavior followed by well-separated oxidation peaks towards AA, EP and UA with activation overpotential. For the ternary mixture containing AA, EP and UA, the three compounds can well separate from each other at the scan rate of 20 mV s−1 with a potential difference of 156, 132 and 288 mV between AA and EP, EP and UA and AA and UA, respectively, which was large enough to determine AA, EP and UA individually and simultaneously. The catalytic peak current obtained, was linearly dependent on the AA, EP and UA concentrations in the range of 2.0 × 10−5 to 1.0 × 10−3 mol l−1, 2.0 × 10−6 to 8.0 × 10−5 mol l−1 and 5.0 × 10−6 to 3.0 × 10−4 mol l−1, and the detection limits for AA, EP and UA were 7.0 × 10−6, 2.0 × 10−7 and 6.0 × 10−7 mol l−1, respectively. The modified electrode shows good sensitivity, selectivity and stability, and has been applied to the determination of EP in practical injection samples and that of EP, UA and AA simultaneously with satisfactory results.