Electrocatalytic oxidation behavior of guanosine at graphene, chitosan and Fe3O4 nanoparticles modified glassy carbon electrode and its determination

A graphene, chitosan and Fe3O4 nanoparticles (nano-Fe3O4) modified glassy carbon electrode (graphene–chitosan/nano-Fe3O4/GCE) was fabricated. The modified electrode was characterized by scanning electron microscope and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The electrochemical oxidation behavior of guanosine was investigated in pH 7.0 phosphate buffer solution by cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry. The experimental results indicated that the modified electrode exhibited an electrocatalytic and adsorptive activities towards the oxidation of guanosine. The transfer electron number (n), transfer proton number (m) and electrochemically effective surface area (A) were calculated. Under the optimized conditions, the oxidation peak current was proportional to guanosine concentration in the range of 2.0 × 10−6 to 3.5 × 10−4 mol L−1 with the correlation coefficient of 0.9939 and the detection limit of 7.5 × 10−7 mol L−1 (S/N = 3). Moreover, the modified electrode showed good ability to discriminate the electrochemical oxidation response of guanosine, guanine and adenosine. The proposed method was further applied to determine guanosine in spiked urine samples and traditional Chinese medicines with satisfactory results.