Advances in the Electrochemical Analysis of Dopamine

Background: The clinical and therapeutic significance of dopamine, known as important hormone and neurotransmitter, motivated the development of the sensitive, rapid, and cost effective electrochemical methods for its determination. Methods: This review comments on the advances in the electrochemical sensing and biosensing of dopamine, covering the period 2005-2015. Results: The electrocatalytic properties and analytical performances of the dopamine sensors based on: bare electrodes, electrochemically pretreated electrodes, chemically modified electrodes (CNTs-, graphene-, NPs-, MIPs, polymers-, and miscellaneous inorganic and organic materials-modified electrodes), as well as of the biosensors based on tyrosinase carbon nanomaterials-modified electrodes and tyrosinase polymersmodified electrodes are compared and discussed. The presented data demonstrate that the electrochemical sensors and biosensors based on CNTs- and graphene- modified electrodes exhibit better analytical performances compared with the other groups for the sensitive and respectively for the simultaneous or selective determination of dopamine in the presence of the interfering species ascorbic acid and uric acid. Conclusion: The overview of the literature reveals that sensitivity enhancement and in vivo measurements still remain the challenges in the development of the electrochemical sensors and biosensors for dopamine determination.