SWCNT-modified carbon paste electrode as an electrochemical sensor for histamine determination in alcoholic beverages

In this work, a simple and rapid electrochemical method is presented for the voltammetric determination of histamine based on carbon paste electrodes bulk-modified with single-walled carbon nanotubes. As monitored in cyclic voltammetry histamine undergoes an irreversible electrochemical oxidation with a peak potential of ca. +1.25 V (vs. Ag/AgCl, 3 mol L-1 KCl) in phosphate buffer solution (PBS, 0.1 mol L-1, pH 6.0). At optimized differential pulse voltammetric parameters, the current response of histamine was linearly proportional to its concentration in the range from 4.5 to 720 mu mol L-1. A low limit of detection of 1.26 mu mol L-1 and a limit of quantification of 3.78 mu mol L-1 of histamine, as well as good reproducibility (RSD = 0.48-3.40 %) were obtained using the carbon paste electrode modified with single-walled carbon nanotubes. The proposed sensor was successfully applied to the determination of histamine in commercial beer and wine samples.