Ru(DMSO)4Cl2 nano-aggregated Nafion membrane modified electrode for simultaneous electrochemical detection of hypoxanthine, xanthine and uric acid

Ru(DMSO)(4)Cl-2 is a good precursor complex in synthetic inorganic chemistry and also considered to be an efficient anti-cancer drug. Here in, we are reporting similar to 80 nm nano-aggregates of Ru(DMSO)(4)Cl-2 complex stabilized Nafion membrane modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE/Nf-{RuDMSO-Cl-H2O}-MME) for simultaneous electro-catalytic oxidations and separation-less detection of purine bases: uric acid (UA), xanthine (X) and hypoxanthine (Hx) in a physiological solution. The MME was characterized using solid state UV-Vis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and transmission electron-microscopy (TEM) techniques. It has been found that Ru(DMSO)(4)Cl-2 undergoes dissolution reactions within the water rich hydrophilic micro-channels of Nafion membrane and get electro-statically stabilized as [(RuClx)-Cl-II(DMSO)(y)-(H2O)(4-(x+y))](n+) through the cationic sulphonic acid structures. The MME film behaves like metallic electronic conductor, investigated with Fe(CN)(6)(3-/4-) redox couple. This new electrode shows efficient electrochemical sensing of the UA, X and Hx with a calibration windows (detection limit) up to 700 (0.372 mu M), 500 (2.351 mu M) and 300 mu M (2.37 mu M) respectively. The electrode shows exceptional stability and applicability to various real samples. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.