A flexible, thin-film carbon electrode is reported for detection of the key neurotransmitter dopamine using standard electroanalytical techniques of cyclic voltammetry, differential pulse voltammetry and square wave voltammetry. The thin-film electrode has been explored as a possible low-cost solution to detect low concentrations of dopamine and its performance has been compared with a commercially available screen printed carbon electrode. It was found that the thin-film electrode is more sensitive than the screen printed electrode, and can faithfully detect dopamine between 50 pM and 1 mM concentrations. The electrode provides a limit of detection of ~50 pM, displays good selectivity between dopamine and ascorbic acid, and is able to show a level of differentiation between the two compounds in terms of peak currents as well as oxidative potentials at physiologically relevant concentrations. This is in contrast to the screen printed electrode which is unable to discriminate between dopamine and ascorbic acid at the same concentrations. The key advantages of the presented electrode system are its low-cost, flexible substrate, and the ability to achieve very low levels of dopamine detection without requiring any electrode surface modification steps, a key factor in reducing fabrication costs and overall device complexity.

中文翻译：

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低成本，薄膜，可大量生产的碳电极，用于检测神经递质多巴胺。

据报道，使用标准的电分析技术，如循环伏安法，差分脉冲伏安法和方波伏安法，可以使用一种柔性的薄膜碳电极检测关键的神经递质多巴胺。薄膜电极已经被探索为检测低浓度多巴胺的一种可能的低成本解决方案，并且已将其性能与市售的丝网印刷碳电极进行了比较。发现薄膜电极比丝网印刷电极更敏感，并且可以忠实地检测浓度在50 pM和1 mM之间的多巴胺。该电极的检测极限为〜50 pM，在多巴胺和抗坏血酸之间显示出良好的选择性，并能够显示两种化合物在生理相关浓度下的峰值电流和氧化电位方面的差异水平。这与丝网印刷电极相反，丝网印刷电极不能区分相同浓度的多巴胺和抗坏血酸。所提出的电极系统的主要优点是其低成本，柔性衬底，以及无需任何电极表面修饰步骤即可实现非常低水平的多巴胺检测的能力，这是降低制造成本和总体装置复杂性的关键因素。