Miniaturized Graphite Sensors Doped With Metal–Bathophenanthroline Complexes for the Selective Potentiometric Determination of Uric Acid in Biological Fluids

Abstract

Miniaturized poly(vinyl chloride) matrix membrane sensors in an all-solid-state graphite support, responsive to urate anion, were developed. The membranes incorporate lipophilic ion-pair complexes of urate anion with ruthenium(III), iron(II), nickel(II) and copper(I) bathophenanthroline (4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline) counter cations. The sensors demonstrate a near-Nernstian response to urate over the concentration range 1 × 10 ^{- 2} –1 × 10 ^{- 5} mol l ^{- 1} and have micromolar detection limits and good selectivity properties. The response is virtually unaffected by pH changes in the range 7–10 and the response times are 5–10 s in aqueous solutions and in human serum and urine samples. A flow injection detector incorporating an iron(II) bathophenanthroline–urate graphite sensor was used for continuous monitoring of uric acid. The minimum detectable concentration was approximately 8 µg ml ^{- 1} and the sample throughput was approximately 120 h ^{- 1} . Direct potentiometric determination of uric acid in the static and hydrodynamic modes of operation over the range 15 µg ml ^{- 1} –1.5 mg ml ^{- 1} showed average recoveries of 98.7 and 97.8% with RSDs of 0.6 and 0.7%, respectively. Application of the method to the determination of uric acid in human serum and urine gave results that compared favourably with those obtained by the standard spectrophotometric method.