A selective voltammetric method for uric acid detection at beta-cyclodextrin modified electrode incorporating carbon nanotubes.

A beta-cyclodextrin-coated electrode incorporating carbon nanotubes was constructed and applied to the detection of uric acid in the presence of high concentration of ascorbic acid. The major obstacle of the overlapped oxidation potential of ascorbic acid was overcome owing to the distinct ability of the carbon nanotubes-modified electrode to yield a large anodic peak difference ca. 400 mV. The sensitive detection of uric acid has been further improved by the formation of a supramolecular complex between beta-cyclodextrin and uric acid. A linear calibration curve was obtained for 5 x 10(-7) to 5 x 10(-5) M in 0.2 M HAc-NaAc buffer (pH 4.5) with correlation coefficient of 0.998 and detection limit of 0.2 microM. The practical analytical application was illustrated by a selective measurement of uric acid in human urine without any preliminary treatment.