Correlation of properties of common carbon fiber precursor materials, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and pitch, with kinetics and sensitivity of microdisk electrodes, PAN T650, PAN HCB and Pitch P25, nanostructured by an electrochemical etching method was tested. Sensitivity of PAN electrodes is higher but kinetics are slower than at pitch electrodes due to more defects in PAN. Because of more surface oxides at PAN T650 adsorption of dopamine is greater than at PAN HCB electrodes but for uric acid adsorption is greater at PAN HCB. Uric acid sensitivity is related to high conductivity of PAN fibers, with an inverse relationship observed for dopamine.
Low (15 nM) limits of detection (LOD) of dopamine were obtained at porous 1–3 nm‐thick overoxidized polypyrrole (OPPY) membrane‐coated microdisk carbon fiber electrodes of small size (r=3.5 µm). The excellent mass transport through the porous OPPY membrane (efficiency as good as solution transport) contributes to the low LOD, together with dopamine preconcentration in the membrane. Structural characterization of the membrane coated electrodes confirms the contribution of membrane nanostructure to the high sensitivity and the low LOD.
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