Facile and controllable synthesis of monodisperse gold nanoparticle bipyramid for electrochemical dopamine sensor

Abstract

We demonstrated potential features of gold nanoparticle bipyramid (AuNB) for an electrochemical biosensor. The facile synthesis method and controllable shape and size of the AuNB are achieved through the optimization of cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC) surfactant over citric acid ratio determining the control of typically spherical Au seed size and its transition into a penta-twinned crystal structure. We observe that the optimized ratio of CTAC and citric acid (CA) facilitates flocculation control in which Au seeds with size as tiny as ~14.8 nm could be attained and finally transformed into AuNB structures with an average length of ~55 nm with high reproducibility. To improve the electrochemical sensing performance of a screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE), surface modification with AuNB via distinctive linking procedures effectively enhanced the electroactive surface area by 40%. Carried out for the detection of dopamine (DA), a neurotransmitter frequently linked to the risk of Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Huntington's diseases, the AuNB decorated-carbon electrode shows outstanding electrocatalytic activity that improves sensing performance, including high sensitivity, low detection limit, wide dynamic range, high selectivity against different analytes, such as ascorbic acid (AA), uric acid (UA) and urea, and excellent reproducibility.