Electrochemical determination of methimazole using nanoporous gold film electrode modified with MoO2 thin film

In this paper, the fabrication of a thin film of molybdenum(IV) oxide on nanoporous gold film (MoO2/Cu-NPGF) electrode is reported by a facile and new method. The procedure included the under-potential deposition (UPD) of copper on the NPGF, and then spontaneous replacement of the Cu layer with a thin film of MoO2.The electrochemical behavior of methimazole on MoO2/Cu-NPGF electrode was investigated by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) and cyclic voltammetry (CV). MoO2/Cu-NPGF showed an excellent performance towards electrochemical oxidation of methimazole with a high sensitivity and a low detection limit 3.5 x 10(-9) mol/L for methimazole and a remarkable decrease in the anodic over-potential. The results showed that the differential pulse response of methimazole was linear in the concentration range of 1.0 x 10(-8) to 3.0 x 10(-5) mol/L with a linear coefficient of 0.994. Moreover, this electrode remarkably showed good repeatability, rapid response, stability and selectivity.