EQCM and Fluoroelectrochemical Studies on the Catalytic Oxidation of NADH at a Pencil 8B‐Scrawled Gold Electrode with High Detection Sensitivity

We report for the first time the effective catalytic electrooxidation of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) on the pencil 8B‐scrawled gold electrode of an electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM). The EQCM allowed us to quantitatively evaluate the catalytic activity of the pencil‐scrawled Au electrode. With increasing the mass of modified pencil powders, the peak potential for NADH oxidation shifted negatively, with maximum shift of ?0.35 V at saturated pencil modification; the NADH‐oxidation peak current density (j_p) was also notably increased, and the j_p at saturated pencil modification was found to be larger than those at conventional pencil 8B and bare Au electrodes. Sensitive amperometric detection of NADH was achieved at the gold electrode with saturated pencil modification, with low detection potential (0.4 V versus SCE), low detection limit (0.08 μmol L^?1) and wide linear range (0.2–710 μmol L^?1). The fluoroelectrochemical measurements of NADH at bare and pencil‐modified gold electrodes were also conducted with satisfactory results. The convenient and low‐cost modification of pencil powders on the Au electrode may have presented a new functional surface of the EQCM, which is recommended for wider applications to bioelectrochemical studies, especially in view of the EQCM's capability of providing abundant in situ information in relevant processes.