In the present study, a modified electrode has been constructed by immobilizing of quercetin at the surface of a glassy carbon electrode modified with multi-wall carbon nanotubes (Q-MWCNT-GCE), and its electrochemical characteristics were studied by cyclic voltammetry. Q-
MWCNT-GCE was successfully used for N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) electrocatalytic oxidation and simultaneous determination of ascorbic acid (AA), L-DOPA ) D L ( , NAC, acetaminophen (AC) and tryptophan (Trp). The obtained results indicate that the peak potential of NAC oxidation at the Q-MWCNT-GCE surface appears at the less positive potential compared with that at the MWCNT-GCE or Q-GCE surface. The electron transfer coefficient, α, and the heterogeneous electron transfer rate constant, k', for the oxidation of NAC at the Q-MWCNT-GCE surface were calculated 0.30 and 6.5×10 -4 cm s -1 , respectively. Furthermore, differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) exhibits two linear dynamic ranges of 1.1-50.0 and 50.0-1000.0 µM and a detection limit of 0.44 µM for NAC determination. Also, Q-MWCNT-GCE was used to simultaneous determination of AA, LD, NAC, AC and Trp with DPV. Finally, the activity of the modified electrode was also investigated for determination of AA, LD, NAC and AC in real samples and satisfactory results were obtained. 15 corresponding to the oxidation of AA, LD, NAC, AC and Trp, respectively. Additionally, substantial increases in the peak currents were detected due to successive increases of AA, LD, NAC, AC and Trp in the analyte solution. The inset of Fig. 6A shows the differential pulse voltammogram of BGCE in a 0.10 M PBS (pH 7.0) containing of 700.0 µM of AA, 100.0 µM of LD, 30.0 µM of NAC, 50.0 µM of AC and 300.0 µM of Trp. This voltammogram indicates that a BGCE could not separate the analytical signals of AA, LD, NAC, AC and Trp. Moreover, Figs.6B-6F show that the calibration plots for AA, LD, NAC, AC and Trp are linear for the concentration ranges of 363.0-800.0 µM of AA, 50.0-112.0 µM of LD, 18.0-40.0 µM of NAC, 30.0-68.0 µM of AC and 167.0-368.0 µM of Trp. It is interesting to note that the sensitivities of the modified electrode to NAC in the absence and presence of AA, LD, AC and Trp are near to each other. It denotes the fact that the oxidation processes of AA, LD, NAC, AC and Trp at the Q-MWCNT-GCE surface are independent of one another. Thus, simultaneous or individual measurements of AA, LD, NAC, AC and Trp are possible without any interference in the proposed modified electrode surface.
Application of Q-MWCNT-GCE for determination of AA, LD, NAC, and AC in real samplesThe utility of the proposed modified electrode for determining AA, LD, NAC and AC in pharmaceutical formulations was tested by a DPV method. The modified electrode was used to determine AA, LD, NAC, and AC concentrations in different tablets. For the measurement of AA, LD, NAC and AC in tablet samples, one AA tablet (500 mg), one LD tablet (100 mg), one NAC tablet (600 mg) and one AC tablet (325 mg) dissolved in 1000 mL of double distilled water separately, and...