Electrochemical Preparation of a Molecularly Imprinted Polypyrrole-modified Pencil Graphite Electrode for Determination of Ascorbic Acid.docVIP

Sensors 2008, 8, 5792-5805; DOI: 10.3390/s8095792 OPEN ACCESS sensors ISSN 1424-8220 /sensors Article Electrochemical Preparation of a Molecularly Imprinted Polypyrrole-modified Pencil Graphite Electrode for Determination of Ascorbic Acid Levent ?zcan, Mutlu ?ahin and Yücel ?ahin * Anadolu University, Faculty of Science, Department of Chemistry, 26470 Eskiehir, Turkey; E-mails: leventozcan@.tr (L.?); mutlus@.tr (M. .). * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-mail: ysahin@.tr; Tel.: +90 222 3350580; Fax: +90 222 3204910 Received: 10 August 2008; in revised form: 30 August 2008 / Accepted: 12 September 2008 / Published: 18 September 2008 Abstract: A molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) polypyrrole (PPy)-based film was fabricated for the determination of ascorbic acid. The film was prepared by incorporation of a template molecule (ascorbic acid) during the electropolymerization of pyrrole onto a pencil graphite electrode (PGE) in aqueous solution using a cyclic voltammetry method. The performance of the imprinted and non-imprinted (NIP) films was evaluated by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). The effect of pH, monomer and template concentrations, electropolymerization cycles and interferents on the performance of the MIP electrode was investigated and optimized. The molecularly imprinted film exhibited a high selectivity and sensitivity toward ascorbic acid. The DPV peak current showed a linear dependence on the ascorbic acid concentration and a linear calibration curve was obtained in the range of 0.25 to 7.0 mM of ascorbic acid with a correlation coefficient of 0.9946. The detection limit (3σ) was determined as 7.4x10-5 M (S/N=3). The molecularly-imprinted polypyrrole-modified pencil graphite electrode showed a stable and reproducible response, without any influence of interferents commonly existing in pharmaceutical samples. The proposed method