Highly selective and sensitive electrochemical detection of dopamine with hydrothermally prepared β-MnO2 nanostructures

We report the electrochemical detection of dopamine (DA) with β-MnO2 nanostructures prepared by simple hydrothermal methodology with varying reaction conditions. The prepared nanostructures were subjected to all physicochemical properties to study their structure and morphology. Docking study was carried out to seek out the binding prospects of dopamine molecule with β-MnO2 surface and the binding affinity values were pointed out for all potential bindings. Further, the chronoamperometric (CA) analysis was performed to analyse the detection efficiency of dopamine in the presence of common interferences like uric acid (UA) and ascorbic acid (AA). The highly sensitive and selective β-MnO2 electrodes show a linear detection property from 0.03 to 65 μM with a limit of detection (LOD) of 8.2 nM.This could be ascribed to the purity of β-MnO2 and its unique one-dimensional morphology. Thus, the electrode can be used as a reliable sensor for the detection of dopamine in biological diagnosis.