Dopamine-functionalized graphene oxide as a high-performance material for biosensing

Abstract We describe a nanocomposite material for the electrochemical detection of β -nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH), a coenzyme involved in redox reactions of all living cells and in the detection of many organic species by electrochemical biosensors. The composite is made of nanosheets of electrochemically exfoliated graphene oxide (EGO) covalently functionalized with dopamine (DP) molecules. The EGO _DP material finally obtained is rich of 1,2-dihydroxyphenyl moieties and is able to detect NADH at a particular low potential value with higher sensitivity with respect to pristine EGO. To study the effectiveness of 1,2-dihydroxyphenyl moieties in inducing electrocatalytic oxidation of NADH, we combined standard voltammetric techniques with UV–Vis absorption spectroelectrochemistry, which allowed us to measure the variations in composition occurring at the electrode|solution interface, i.e. to measure the consumption rate of NADH. Spectroelectrochemical tests performed by polarising the electrode at a fixed potential value were finally used to compare the performance of EGO _DP with both EGO and EGO-DP blend (MIX) for the detection of NADH. The covalently functionalized EGO (EGO _DP ) shows sensitivity to NADH up to 300 M ⁻¹ , around 180 % and 140 % better than either pristine EGO or MIX, respectively.