A high efficiency N, P doped porous carbon nanoparticles derived from lotus leaves for simultaneous electrochemical determination of ascorbic acid, dopamine, and uric acid

•CNP was prepared by high temperature carbonization and one step activation.•The combination of heteroatom and carbon material is helpful for the development of sensors with high sensitivity and selectivity. A kind of phosphorus doped nitrogenous porous carbon material (CNP) has been prepared from lotus leaves to fabricate a novel electrochemical sensor for the simultaneous determination of ascorbic acid (AA), dopamine (DA) and uric acid (UA). Detailed characteristics of the as-prepared porous carbon were investigated by SEM, BET, XPS, XRD and Raman analysis. The electrochemical behaviors of the modified electrode were explored by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). The CNP/GCE demonstrated linear response ranges of 20 μM–250 μM for AA, 10 μM–480 μM for DA, and 25 μM–2500 μM for UA, with detection limits (S/N = 3) of 4.25 μM, 0.86 μM, and 0.20 μΜ, respectively. Furthermore, the CNP/GCE has been successfully applied to determine AA, DA and UA in real serum samples, which exhibited excellent reproducibility, anti-interference and stability.