A disposable sensor based on one-pot synthesized tungsten oxide nanostructure-modified screen printed electrodes for selective detection of dopamine and uric acid

Here, screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPCEs) were modified with ultrafine and mainly mono-disperse sea urchin-like tungsten oxide (SUWO 3 ) nanostructures synthesized by a simple one-pot hydrothermal method for non-enzymatic detection of dopamine (DA) and uric acid (UA) in synthetic urine. Sea urchin-like nanostructures were clearly observed in scanning electron microscope images and WO 3 composition was confirmed with XRD, Raman, FTIR and UV–Vis spectrophotometer. Modification of SPCEs with SUWO 3 nanostructures via the drop-casting method clearly reduced the R ct value of the electrodes, lowered the ∆Ep and enhanced the DA oxidation current due to high electrocatalytic activity. As a result, SUWO 3 /SPCEs enabled highly sensitive non-enzymatic detection of DA (LOD: 51.4 nM and sensitivity: 127 µA mM −1 cm −2 ) and UA (LOD: 253 nM and sensitivity: 55.9 µA mM −1 cm −2 ) at low concentration. Lastly, SUWO 3 /SPCEs were tested with synthetic urine, in which acceptable recoveries for both molecules (94.02–105.8%) were obtained. Given the high selectivity, the sensor has the potential to be used for highly sensitive simultaneous detection of DA and UA in real biological samples. Graphical abstract