Highly discriminative properties between catecholamines and ascorbic acid are desirable for the development of a catecholamine sensor based on electrochemical detection, such as an amperometric or voltammetric type, because of a overlapping of the oxidation potential of catecholamines with that of ascorbic acid. The reason for this is that ascorbic acid is the most serious interferant in the electrochemical detection of catecholamines. In such cases, an electrochemical pretreatment or modification of the electrode has been shown to be effective to improve the selectivity of the sensor against ascorbic acid. A modification of the electrode with an anionic polymer film, such as Nafion 1,2 , Nafion/polyester ionomer 3 , styrene/maleic acid copolymer 4 , or negatively charged monolayers 5 , which exclude the penetration of ascorbic acid to the electrode surface, prevents interference from ascorbic acid.Heineman et al. reported on a model catechol sensor based on a poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) (PNVP)-modified electrode 6-8 , which exhibits an enhanced response to catechol, along with selectivity against ascorbic acid. We have shown that the PNVP membrane had a concentration function with respect to catechol, and that the membrane plays a key role in the observed selectivity and enhanced the sensitivity of the sensor.9 Based on the above results, we fabricated a catechol sensor based on an ascorbate oxidase immobilized PNVPmodified electrode, in order to improve the selectivity against ascorbic acid, while maintaining an enhanced response to catechol.10 Poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) (PNVC) is the same type of N-vinylamide polymers as is PNVP, in which a five-membered ring of PNVP is replaced by a seven-membered ring, as shown in Fig. 1. If an electrode is modified with PNVC instead of PNVP, the resulting electrode would be expected to show a higher enhanced response to catechol, because the hydrophobic interaction of PNVC with catechol is generally thought to be stronger than that of PNVP, judging from the chemical structures of PNVP and PNVC. In this paper, we wish to report on the response behavior of a PNVC-modified electrode to catechol and ascorbic acid, compared with the PNVP-modified electrode.
Experimental
ChemicalsThe N-vinylcaprolactam (NVC) monomer was generously donated by BASF. The NVC monomer was distilled under reduced pressure to remove the inhibitor. Catechol and ascorbic acid of analytical grade were obtained from Kishida Kagaku Co., (Japan) and were used as received. A graphite electrode (4.6 mmφ×3.8 cm-long) was obtained from Poco Graphite, Inc. (USA).
Preparation of PNVC-modified electrodePNVC was prepared by polymerizing the NVC monomer (10 g) in the presence of 2,2′-azobis(isobutyronitrile) (0.02 g) as an initiator in a 20-ml glass ampoule at 65°C for 72 h. The resulting polymer was dissolved in ethanol and the resulting ethanol solution was added dropwise to hexane. The precipitated polymer was purified by repeated reprecipitation.A graphite electrode was cleaned by sonicating in water and dried in the ...