Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Acetaminophen on a PVC/TTF-TCNQ Composite Electrode Modified by Gold Nanoparticles: Application as an Amperometric Sensor

Abstract

This work shows the electrocatalytic activity towards the oxidation of acetaminophen of a composite electrode PVC/TTF-TCNQ modified with gold nanoparticles. Owing to a good linear relationship between acetaminophen concentration and current response at lower oxidation potential it is proposed as a new alternative for amperometric determination of acetaminophen. Besides the good catalytic activity (Eapp = 0.425 V), the proposed sensor shows high reproducibility, long-term stability, low cost and can be used both in batch and in FIA systems. In batch, it was obtained a linear range for acetaminophen over a range of 1 to 800 μM with a detection limit of 0.66 μM and a correlation coefficient of 0.997 with a slope (sensitivity) of 53 mA M-1. In FIA, a sensitivity of 9.9 ± 0.15 mA M-1 and a linear regression coefficient (r) of 0.999 were obtained for a linear range for acetaminophen between 1 to 800 μM. The detection limit (s/n = 3) was 8.9 μM.