BiPO4/BiOCl/g-C3N4 heterojunction based photoelectrochemical sensing of dopamine in serum samples

Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter that has a crucial impact on the physiological health of the human body. Consequently, it is necessary to establish a highly selective and sensitive method for the determination of dopamine levels in serum. In this work, g-C3N4 and BiPO4/BiOCl (BPCl) were used as optoelectronic materials to construct a novel dopamine photoelectrochemical sensor. Moreover, the optoelectronic materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy. Meanwhile, the photoelectrochemical performance of the modified electrodes with different materials was investigated, and the results showed that BPCl/C3N4/GCE has excellent photoelectrochemical performance. Concomitantly, the dopamine photoelectrochemical sensor also has a wide detection range (0.05–10 μM) and limit of detection (LOD = 0.023 μM). Furthermore, it has good reproducibility, selectivity and stability, which can be used in the actual sample detection of serum.