Flexible electrode based on nitrogen carbon quantum dots for dopamine detection

The simple fabrication of a flexible electrochemical sensor from nitrogen carbon quantum dots (NCQDs) on a modified ITO surface for dopamine detection is presented. NCQD dispersion was used to modify an ITO-coated PET flexible substrate, which was previously pretreated with oxygen plasma to activate its surface. Optical, chemical, electrochemical and electrocatalytic characterizations were performed on the proposed electrode with UV–vis, FT-IR, TEM, CV, and EIS. The detection limit of the NCQDs-ITO/PET sensor determined via CV was 4.7 µM over a very wide range of 0.0–2.0 mM in a linear regimen. This sensor demonstrated outstanding as a flexible platform and a facile fabrication for the detection of DA without the need to work with composites or complex systems that involve different nanoparticles.