A high performance sensor based on bimetallic NiCu nanoparticles for the simultaneous determination of five species of biomolecules

Bimetallic NiCu nanoparticles were modified on the electrode for the simultaneous determination of five small biomolecules. The NiCu nanoparticles were prepared by co-reduction of 1: 1 ratio of Ni(acac) (2) and Cu( acac) (2) in the solvent of oleylamine. The morphology and structure characterization showed that their smaller size and uniform morphology realize the larger specific surface area for the extraordinary electro catalytic activities and higher sensitivity, which provided the as-prepared NiCu nanoparticles possibilityto build high performance sensor for the simultaneous determination of five small biomolecules, ascorbicacid (AA), dopamine (DA), uric acid (UA), guanine (G) and adenine (A), with high sensitivity, wide range, low detection limits, good reproducibility and stability. The linear response ranges for the determination of AA, DA, UA, G and A were 20-2500, 0.25-40, 0.5-110, 0.5-480 and 0.5-450 mu M with the detection limits (S/N = 3) of 5, 0.01, 0.05, 0.1 and 0.1 mu M, respectively. The proposed sensor was also employed to determine these molecules in real samples, such as vitamin C, dopamine injection, urine and DNA, and the satisfactory results suggest a great potential of bimetallic NiCu nanoparticles as a sensor for practical application in complex biological system. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.