Electrodeposited acetaminophen as a bifunctional electrocatalyst for simultaneous determination of ascorbic acid, glutathione, adrenaline and tryptophan

In this study, an acetaminophen-modified glassy carbon electrode (ACMGCE) was fabricated for the purpose of investigating its electrochemical behavior by cyclic voltammetry (CV). ACMGCE serves as an excellent bifunctional electrocatalyst for the oxidation of ascorbic acid (AA) and glutathione (GSH) in a phosphate buffer solution (pH 7.0). The kinetic parameters such as the electron transfer coefficient, α, and the heterogeneous electron transfer rate constant, k', for the oxidation of AA and GSH at the ACMGCE surface were determined by CV. In addition, detection limits of 3.89 μM for AA and 0.37 μM for GSH were obtained at the ACMGCE using a differential pulse voltammetric (DPV) method. In DPV, the bifunctional modified electrode could separate the oxidation peak potentials of AA, GSH, adrenaline (AD) and tryptophan (Trp) present in the same solution, though the peak potentials were indistinguishable at a bare GCE. Finally, the modified electrode was successfully applied to the determination of AA in a pharmaceutical preparation and GSH in a human plasma sample.