Bioinspired N-C coated ZnO based electrochemiluminescence sensor for dopamine screening from neuroblastoma patient

•An electrochemiluminescence sensor for dopamine (DA) has been constructed by using ZnO nanoparticles coated with bioinspired N rich C (NC) dots.•The designed sensor provides highly sensitive and selective monitoring of DA.•The limit of detection and linear range of designed electrode was 4.2 nM and 5–300 µM, respectively.•The developed sensor shows reliability in monitoring DA from blood of neuroblastoma patient. Precise monitoring of dopamine (DA) helps in diagnosing and treatment of various neurological disorders such as Dementia, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases etc. Thus, herein. we reported a novel sensing platform based on bioinspired N rich C (NC) coated ZnO (NC@ZnO) for the control monitoring of DA by electrochemiluminescence (ECL) method. The synthesized NC@ZnO material characterized through SEM, TEM, XPS and Raman spectroscopy. Our results shows that a cathodic ECL signal is generated at the surface of ZnO when exposed to K2S2O8 co-reactant, and interestingly the intensity increases by more than 200 times upon incorporation with bioinspired NC. Thus, the developed NC@ZnO system with enhanced ECL intensity was further successfully employed to monitor DA. Under optimal conditions, the ECL sensors shows a good linear range (5–300 µM) with excellent limit of detection (LOD) value of 4.2 nM (based on 3σ). The designed sensor also shows promising selective efficacy even in the presence of co-existing active species such as ascorbic acid (AA), uric acid (UA), glucose (Glu), L. Cysteine i.e., and reliability in terms of precise monitoring of DA from blood of neuroblastoma patient.