Overoxidized polypyrrole/graphene nanocomposite with good electrochemical performance as novel electrode material for the detection of adenine and guanine

Most conducting polymer/graphene composites have excellent electrical conductivity. However, the background currents of these composites modified electrodes are much larger. In order to improve the sensitivities of these methods, it is necessary to decrease the background signal. In this paper, porous structure films of overoxidized polypyrrole/graphene (PPyox/GR) have been electrochemically coated onto glassy carbon electrode (GCE) and successfully utilized as an efficient electrode material for the quantitive detection of adenine and guanine, two of the most important components of DNA and RNA. The permselective polymer coatings with low background current could improve the selectivity and sensitivity of microelectrodes for the electropositive purine bases. The GRs into these polymers would further improve sensitivity by increasing the electroactive surface area. The electrochemical sensor can be applied to the quantification of adenine and guanine with a linear range covering 0.06-100 μM and 0.04-100 μM, and a low detection limit of 0.02 μM and 0.01 μM, respectively. More importantly, the proposed method was applied to quantify adenine and guanine in calf thymus DNA with satisfactory results.