Eletrodos de óxido de estanho dopado com flúor modificados por eletrodeposição direta de ouro: preparação, caracterização e aplicação como sensores eletroquímicos

Abstract

Chemically modified electrodes have been explored to obtain new and better electrochemical sensors. Transparent conductive oxides, such as fluorine-doped tin-oxide (FTO), show electrical conductivity comparable to metals and are being studied as candidates for new sensors. In this work, FTO was modified by gold electrodeposition using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and a chlorine-auric acid solution. A set of different materials were produced, varying the number of cycles on CV. The chemically modified electrodes were characterized by: scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. From these results, it was possible to evaluate the resistive, capacitive and diffusional aspects and to make a relationship between these parameters and the number of electrodeposition cycles. Among the produced electrodes, the one with 100 cycles presented the best behavior, the lowest global impedance, crystal patterns from DRX, nanometric clusters and the greater adsorption capacity, showing better quality for an electrochemical sensor. The electrode was tested for detection of paracetamol/caffeine and uric acid/dopamine; the results are good selectivity, decreased oxidation potential (0.58 V and 0.97 V vs. SCE, for paracetamol and caffeine; 0.22 V and 0.47 V vs. SCE, for dopamine and uric acid, respectively) and low detection limits (0.82 and 0.052 mol.L-¹ for paracetamol and caffeine; 0.27 and 1.01 mol.L-¹ for uric acid and dopamine, respectively).