Hierarchical nanoporous platinum-copper alloy for simultaneous electrochemical determination of ascorbic acid, dopamine, and uric acid

A hierarchical nanoporous PtCu alloy was fabricated by two-step dealloying of a PtCuAl precursor alloy followed by annealing. The new alloy possesses interconnected hierarchical network architecture with bimodal distributions of ligaments and pores. It exhibits high electrochemical activity towards the oxidation of ascorbic acid (AA), dopamine (DA), and uric acid (UA) at working potentials of 0.32, 0.47 and 0.61 V (vs. a mercury sulfate reference electrode), respectively. The new alloy was placed on a glassy carbon electrode and then displayed a wide linear response to AA, DA, and UA in the concentration ranges from 25 to 800 μM, 4 to 20 μM, and 10 to 70 μM, respectively. The lower detection limits are 17.5 μM, 2.8 µM and 5.7 μM at an S/N ratio of 3.