Graphene oxide-modified electrodes for sensitive determination of diethylstilbestrol

This paper reports an electrochemical sensor fabricated with graphene oxide (GO) modified on a chitosan-coated glassy carbon electrode (GO-CS/GCE) and its application for the detection of diethylstilbestrol (DES). It was observed that the effective electrochemical surface area of the GO modified electrode was nearly 10 times that of the bare GCE. This could be used to explain the results that the oxidation peak current of DES on the GO-CS/GCE was much larger than on the bare GCE. Under optimized conditions, the prepared electrode could be used to electrochemically detect DES according to the oxidation of the DES. Based on the technique of differential pulse voltammetry and the accumulation of DES on GO modified electrodes, the calibration curve for DES determination could be obtained with a linear range of 1.5 × 10−8–3.0 × 10−5 M and an estimated detection limit of 3.0 × 10−9 M (S/N = 3). The feasibility of the developed electrode for tablet sample analysis was investigated. Our investigation revealed that GO could significantly improve the analytical performance of electrochemical sensors.