A microchip-based flow injection-amperometry system with mercaptopropionic acid modified electroless gold microelectrode for the selective determination of dopamine

A novel chip-based flow injection analysis (FIA) system has been developed for automatic, rapid and selective determination of dopamine (DA) in the presence of ascorbic acid (AA). The system is composed of a polycarbonate (PC) microfluidic chip with an electrochemical detector (ED), a gravity pump, and an automatic sample loading and injection unit. The selectivity of the ED was improved by modification of the gold working microelectrode, which was fabricated on the PC chip by UV-directed electroless gold plating, with a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA). Postplating treatment methods for cleaning the surface of electroless gold microelectrodes were investigated to ensure the formation of high quality SAMs. The effects of detection potential, flow rate, and sampling volume on the performance of the chip-based FIA system were studied. Under optimum conditions, a detection limit of 74 nmol L−1 for DA was achieved at the sample throughput rate of 180 h−1. A RSD of 0.9% for peak heights was observed for 19 runs of a 100 μmol L−1 DA solution. Interference-free determination of DA could be conducted if the concentration ratio of AA–DA was no more than 10.