Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide assisted self-assembly of phosphotungstic acid on graphene oxide nanosheets for selective determination of tryptophan

A one-step method was developed to prepare cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and phosphotungstic acid (PTA)-modified graphene oxide (GO) (PTA/CTAB/GO). In a system containing CTAB, GO, and PTA, negatively charged GO forms stable complex with positively charged CTAB, which assembled on the GO nanosheet surface. And then, with CTAB molecules as the molecular linker, PTA was loaded on CTAB/GO hybrid by electrostatic interaction. The PTA/CTAB/GO was characterized with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and subsequently used in the construction of tryptophan (Trp) sensor. Compared with the CTAB/GO, PTA/CTAB/GO exhibits better electrocatalytic activity towards the oxidation of Trp, which is attributed to the synergistic effect of PTA and GO. The differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) curve of Trp at PTA/CTAB/GO/glassy carbon electrode (GCE) exhibited two linear dynamic ranges with a detection limit of 0.02 μM (S/N = 3). In addition, the proposed sensor is successfully employed to detect Trp in the real samples with satisfactory results.