Nitrogen and sulfur co-doped reduced graphene oxide-gold nanoparticle composites for electrochemical sensing of rutin

Abstract The extraordinary biological and physiological properties of rutin have been used in the preparation of therapeutical drugs. So it is very significant to develop a simple and sensitive method for rutin determaination in pharmaceutical samples. Herein, nitrogen and sulfur co-doped reduced graphene oxide attached with gold nanoparticles (NS-rGO/AuNPs) was developed for electrochemical determination of rutin. The NS-rGO was first prepared by a simple one-step thermal annealing method, and AuNPs were embedded onto NS-rGO through the interaction force of Au with N and S atoms. Detailed characterizations showed that the AuNPs are well dispersed and the presence of nitrogen and sulfur are significant. The NS-rGO/AuNPs modified electrode exhibited a significantly enhanced electrocatalytic activity towards rutin compared with NS-rGO, N-rGO and S-rGO modified electrodes. The excellent performance was achieved by the synergistic effect of AuNPs and heteroatoms co-doping. As a consequence, the NS-rGO/AuNPs based sensor showed a wide linear range of 0.2–1400 nM with a nanomolar detection limit of 0.067 nM (S/N = 3). Also the sensor exhibited satisfying selectivity, reproducibility, and stability. Finally, the sensor was successfully used to determine rutin in pharmaceutical tablets.