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A glassy carbon electrode modified with hollow cubic cuprous oxide for voltammetric sensing of L-cysteine

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Abstract

This paper reports on an electrochemical sensing system for L-cysteine. It is based on the use of hollow cubic Cu2O particles that were prepared in two steps. First, the Cu2O/ polystyrene (PS) composites were prepared by a surface ion exchange strategy for in-situ reductive deposition on the surface of carboxy-capped PS particles. Thereafter, the PS particles were removed from the Cu2O/PS composites by treatment with tetrahydrofuran (THF). The resulting hollow cubic Cu2O particles were placed in a Nafion matrix on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) which exhibits high surface area, good site accessibility and excellent electrocatalytic activity for L-cysteine. The cyclic voltammetric response of the modified GCE to L-cysteine is about 2.8-fold stronger than when using a GCE modified with pure Cu2O. The detection limit for L-cysteine is lower by about 1 order of magnitude, and the working voltage is rather low (−0.08 V vs. Ag/AgCl). An excellent electrochemical selectivity for L-cysteine over other amino acids was also achieved. The method was successfully applied to the determination of L-cysteine in pharmaceutical samples.

An electrochemical sensing system for the detection of L-cysteine in amino acid injections has been established by using the hollow cubic Cu2O particles as recognition element.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Science and Technology Project of Anhui Province (No. 1606c08229), Key projects of Natural Science Research of Anhui Province (No. KJ2016A741) and National Undergraduate Training Program for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (No. 201710376009).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Biomimetic Sensor and Detecting Technology of Anhui Province, School of Materials and Chemical Engineering, West Anhui University, Lu’an, Anhui, 237012, China

    Huaifen Li, Lingling Ye, Yanwei Wang & Chenggen Xie

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  1. Huaifen Li
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  2. Lingling Ye
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  3. Yanwei Wang
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  4. Chenggen Xie
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Correspondence to Chenggen Xie.

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Li, H., Ye, L., Wang, Y. et al. A glassy carbon electrode modified with hollow cubic cuprous oxide for voltammetric sensing of L-cysteine. Microchim Acta 185, 5 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-017-2578-4

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