Modification of gold electrode using single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) has been done. The synthesis of SWCNTs on the gold electrode surfaces was carried out using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. The performance of the electrodes as a sensor was characterized using dopamine (DA) solution at pH 4 by cyclic voltammetry. A change in electrode capacitance was found before and after DA detection. The detection limit and sensitivity of the electrodes are 0.79 μM and 3.414 μA mm −2 μM −1 , respectively. No interference signal was found from ascorbic acid (AA) during DA measurement. DA is a chemical compound that belongs to catecholamine group and have important roles in the central nervous.1 It is found in human body and commonly located at the hypothalamus.2 Low level of DA on the human body can cause some disorders, e.g. Alzheimer, schizophrenia, and Parkinson.3-5 Therefore, DA detection is important to find out the amount of DA inside the human body.Electrochemistry is an analytical method that had been applied as a biosensor.6 This method is commonly used because it is relatively fast, simple and low-cost. 7 Biosensors selectivity and sensitivity improvements can be conducted by modifying the electrodes using a specific material.8 Most of the modified electrodes are platinum, silver and gold. 8 The modified electrodes have been reported as a dopamine (DA) biosensor, i.e. gold nanoparticles electrode, 1 calixarene modified GCE, 5 nanoporous Au-Ag alloy electrodes, 3 and carbon nanomaterial electrodes. 4 Several scientists already used carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with various materials combinations to detect DA. [9][10][11][12] In this research, we used single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) modified gold electrode as working electrodes for DA detection. SWCNTs is one of the most preferred materials that is used as a biosensor because of its dimensional character. 13 This material was made in our laboratory by a CVD method which is relatively different with available catalyst in the Market.14 The type of the catalyst used in the SWCNTs synthesis influenced the activity performance of the catalyst itself. 15 In our previous research, we modified gold electrodes using gold nanoparticles that have detection limit of 2 μM.1 The performance of the SWCNTs modified gold electrode in this research will be compared with the previous work.
ExperimentalSynthesis of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs).-Gold electrodes were modified with SWCNTs by CVD method as from our previous work.14, 16 The results obtained from Field-emission scanning microscopy (FE-SEM) and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) indicated that SWCNTs were bundled with each other, resulting in tubes with diameters of 5-20 nm. The SWCNTs intensity ratio obtained from Raman Spectroscopy at G-band and D-band at ca.1590 cm −1 and 1350 cm −1 respectively, was ca. 20 when a wavelength of 514,5 nm was used. The D-band was very weak, which indicated that * Electrochemical Society Member.z E-mail: fredy@chem.its.ac.id the SWCNTs contained high level cry...