Synergistic electrocatalytic effect of graphene/nickel hydroxide composite for the simultaneous electrochemical determination of ascorbic acid, dopamine and uric acid

•Effective resolution of voltammetric signals of AA, DA and UA at nickel hydroxide modified solar graphene coated glassy carbon electrode led to the sensitive and selective detection of these three biomolecules. Satisfactory results were obtained for real sample analysis also.•Solar graphene–nickel hydroxide is for the first time being employed for the simultaneous detection of AA, DA and UA.•Well adhered nickel oxide particles were easily fabricated on solar graphene coated GCE.•The performance of Ni-sG/GCE was superior to sG/GCE and low concentrations of the three biomolecules could be effectively resolved at Ni-sG/GCE.•Hence lower detection limits compared to sG/GCE were attained at Ni-sG/GCE.•Satisfactory results were also obtained for real sample analysis. A novel solar graphene-nickel hydroxide modified glassy carbon electrode was developed and used for the simultaneous detection of ascorbic acid (AA), dopamine (DA) and uric acid (UA). The sensor exhibited appreciable electrocatalytic effect for the simultaneous detection of lower concentrations of the analytes compared to solar graphene modified glassy carbon electrode. The detection limits attained by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) were 30μM, 120nM and 0.46μM for AA, DA and UA respectively. Recovery values ranging from 98 - 104% were obtained for the analysis of real samples.