Highly Sensitive and Selective Electrochemical Determination of 4-Aminophenol Based on Flower-Like Ag-Au Nanocomposites Modified Glassy Carbon Electrode

4-aminophenol (4-AP), a typical secondary product from pharmaceuticals preparation, can lead to dangerous collateral effects in drugs. It’s crucial to develop suitable methods for fast and accurate determination of 4-AP. Herein, a novel and fast electrochemical method based on flower-like Ag-Au nanocomposites modified electrode has been developed for accurate determination of 4-AP. The flower-like Ag-Au nanocomposites were synthesized via a seed-mediated growth route utilizing L-dopa as reduction agent and assembled by 2-dimension nanosheets. The electrochemical oxidation of 4-AP on Ag-Au nanocomposites modified electrode was studied by using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). The modified electrode exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity toward 4-AP. Under the optimized conditions, the sensor displayed high sensitivity for the detection of 4-AP in the linear range from 0.1 to 100 μM with detection limit of 36 nM (S/N = 3). The fabricated electrode showed high selectivity, good reproducibility, and long-term stability to 4-AP detection. Furthermore, the developed electrochemical sensor showed no interference for simultaneous detection of 4-AP and acetaminophen. It was also demonstrated that the sensor could be applied for the analysis of pharmaceutical products.