Fabrication of a template-synthesized gold nanorod-modified electrode for the detection of dopamine in the presence of ascorbic acid

Gold nanorods (GNRs) with suitable aspect ratio were synthesized with a template technique and then dispersed in a saturated sodium citrate solution by ultrasonication to form a GNR suspension. A GNR-modified electrode was fabricated using the GNR suspension. The oxidation of dopamine at the GNR/GC electrode exhibited surprisingly high electrocatalytic activity and adsorption-controlled characteristics. Square-wave voltammetry was used to detect dopamine. At the GNR/GC electrode, the linear concentration range of DA is from 1 × 10−8 M to 1 × 10−7 M and the detection limit (s/n = 3) is as low as 5.5 × 10−9 M. The current sensitivity is 3.280 μA/μM, and 1000-fold ascorbic acid (AA) cannot interfere with the determination of DA. All these performances are greatly superior to those of the bare GC electrode.