Preliminary investigation of the surface activation of diposable screen printed carbon electrodes using synthesized gold nanoparticles

Gold nanoparticles, GNPs, are known to be the most stable metal nanoparticles. They exhibit many unique and interesting physical and optical properties with profound potentials for diverse applications. However, they are highly delimited in terms of size distribution. Different sizes of gold nanoparticles, synthesized through simple laboratory method, were characterized using zetasizer nano series particle size analyzer and ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer. The synthesized gold nanoparticles were used to modify screen printed carbon electrodes and electrochemical characterization was conducted. The synthesized GNPs sizes range from 42.54-1730.00 nm. The 49.27 nm sized GNPs displayed the highest oxidative peak current in the cyclic voltammogram obtained. All the GNPs modified electrodes gave higher peak over the bare electrode. This implied that the GNP/SPCEs allowed the flow of current or offered least resistance to the flow of current as compared to bare/SPCE. The high peaks indicate successful oxidation process at the anode electrode of the electrochemical process. The present work showcased a simple approach of coating the surface of the disposable SPCEs with GNPs unlike other previously employed pathways. The work also showed that GNPs can successfully be assembled onto the surface of SPCE through simple dipping of the SPCE in the GNPs solution. In addition this approach is cheap, simple and environmentally friendly. The fabricated electrode, GNP/SPCE could be a promising electrode for future detections and determinations.