Novel Poly-Dopamine Adhesive for a Halloysite Nanotube-Ru(bpy)(3) (2+) Electrochemiluminescent Sensor

Herein, for the first time, the electrochemiluminescent sensor based on Ru(bpy)(3) (2+)-modified electrode using dopamine as an adhesive was successfully developed. After halloysite nanotube slurry was cast on a glassy carbon electrode and dried, an alkaline dopamine solution was added on the electrode surface. Initially, polydopamine belts with dimensions of tens to hundreds of nanometers formed via oxidization of the dopamine by ambient oxygen. As the incubation time increased, the nanobelts became broader and then united with each other to form a polydopamine film. The halloysite nanotubes were embedded within the polydopamine film. The above electrode was soaked in Ru(bpy)(3) (2+) aqueous solution to adsorb Ru(bpy)(3) (2+) into the active sites of the halloysite nanotubes via cation-exchange procedure. Through this simple procedure, a Ru(bpy)(3) (2+)-modified electrode was obtained using only 6.25 µg Ru(bpy)(3) (2+), 15.0 µg dopamine, and 9.0 µg halloysite nanotubes. The electrochemistry and electrochemiluminescence (ECL) of the modified electrode was investigated using tripropylamine (TPA) and nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) as co-reactants. The different ECL behaviors of the modified electrode using NTA and TPA as well as the contact angle measurements reflected the hydrophilic character of the electrode. The results indicate that halloysite nanotubes have a high loading capacity for Ru(bpy)(3) (2+) and that dopamine is suitable for the preparation of modified electrodes.