Sensitive and selective determination of gallic acid in green tea samples based on an electrochemical platform of poly(melamine) film

• A nitrogen-rich conducting polymer was used for electroanalysis of gallic acid.
• The sensor exhibits excellent electrochemical activity in both acidic and neutral media.
• Good analytical results in terms of low detection limit and wide linear range are obtained.
• The flow-injection amperometric assay is highly stable for continuous 57 replicates measurement (RSD = 3.9%).
• The assay shows good recovery for green tea samples.

In this work, an electrochemical sensor coupled with an effective flow-injection amperometry (FIA) system is developed, targeting the determination of gallic acid (GA) in a mild neutral condition, in contrast to the existing electrochemical methods. The sensor is based on a thin electroactive poly(melamine) film immobilized on a pre-anodized screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE*/PME). The characteristics of the sensing surface are well-characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and surface water contact angle experiments. The proposed assay exhibits a wide linear response to GA in both pH 3 and pH 7.0 phosphate buffer solutions (PBS) under the optimized flow-injection amperometry. The detection limit (S/N = 3) is 0.076 μM and 0.21 μM in the pH 3 and pH 7 solutions, respectively. A relative standard deviation (RSD) of 3.9% is obtained for 57 successive measurements of 50 μM GA in pH 7 solutions. Interference studies indicate that some inorganic salts, catechol, caffeine and ascorbic acid do not interfere with the GA assay. The interference effects from some orthodiphenolic compounds are also investigated. The proposed method and a conventional Folin–Ciocalteu method are applied to detect GA in green tea samples using the standard addition method, and satisfactory spiked recoveries are obtained.

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