In situ fabricated iodine-adlayer assisted selective electrooxidation of uric acid in alkaline media

This work presents the electrooxidation of uric acid (UA) at an iodine-adlayer-modified gold, Au (I|Au (poly)) electrode in 0.1 M NaOH solution using cyclic voltammetric, amperometric and open-circuit potential measurement techniques. A tremendous enhancement of the electrode activity towards the electrooxidation of UA was achieved by virtue of the simple modification of the Au (poly) electrode surface with a neutral iodine-adlayer, fabricated in situ through the spontaneous oxidative chemisorption of iodide present in the sample solution. The cyclic voltammetric peak current increases remarkably for the oxidation of UA and the peak potential shifts by 365 mV to the negative direction of potential compared to the bare Au (poly) electrode. Oxidation of ascorbic acid (AA) at the I|Au (poly) electrode takes place at the same potential as that at the bare electrode, but the peak current intensity is almost twice at the bare Au (poly) electrode as compared to the modified one. In the mixture of the AA and UA, the cyclic voltammetric signals corresponding to the oxidations of AA and UA were resolved by 340 mV. The electrode response in the mixture was highly reproducible because of the inhibition of adsorption of oxidation products and UA.