l-Tyrosine can exhibit a small anodic peak on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) coated glassy carbon electrodes (GCE). At pH 5.5 its peak potential is 0.70 V (vs. SCE). When an ionic liquid (i.e., 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate, [omim][PF 6 ]) is introduced on the MWCNT coat, the peak becomes bigger. Furthermore, in the presence of Cu 2þ ion the anodic peak of l-tyrosine increases further due to the formation of Cu 2þ -l-tyrosine complex, while the peak potential keeps unchanged. Therefore, a sensitive voltammetry based on the oxidation of Cu 2þ -l-tyrosine complex on MWCNTs-[omim] [PF 6 ] composite coated electrode is developed for ltyrosine. Under the optimized conditions, the anodic peak current is linear to l-tyrosine concentration in the range of 1 Â 10 À8 -5 Â 10 À6 M, and the detection limit is 8 Â 10 À9 M. The modified electrode shows good reproducibility and stability. In addition, the voltammetric behavior of other amino acids is explored. It is found that among them tryptophan (Trp) and histidine (His) can also produce sensitive anodic peak under same experimental conditions, and their detection limits are 4 Â 10 À9 M and 4 Â 10 À6 M, respectively.