Pilot study of electrochemical reduction of selected nucleotides and double-stranded DNA at pristine micro-/ultrananocrystalline boron-doped diamond electrodes at very negative potentials

TL;DR

This study explores the electrochemical reduction of nucleotides and dsDNA using pristine boron-doped diamond electrodes at very negative potentials, highlighting the effects of surface termination and preadsorption on reduction efficiency.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of micro-/ultrananocrystalline boron-doped diamond electrodes for nucleotide and DNA reduction at negative potentials, emphasizing surface termination effects.

Findings

H-B-MCDE reduces most analytes except GMP.

O-B-MCDE/O-B-UNCDE reduces all analytes except dsDNA.

Preadsorption improves repeatability and signal magnitude.

Abstract

Pristine polycrystalline boron-doped diamond electrodes (BDDEs) -- microcrystalline (B-MCDE) and ultrananocrystalline (B-UNCDE) were applied for the electrochemical reduction of several selected purine nucleotides -- Guanosine 5'-monophosphate (GMP), 2'-Deoxyguanosine 5'-monophosphate (dGMP), Adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP), Adenosine 5'-diphosphate (ADP), Adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP), and pyrimidine nucleotides -- Cytidine 5'-monophosphate (CMP), Thymidine 5'-monophosphate (TMP), as well as low-molecular-weight double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) at very negative potentials via linear sweep voltammetry (LSV). Three different types of electrode surfaces were employed -- "H-terminated" B-MCDE (H-B-MCDE) and "O-terminated" B-MCDE/B-UNCDE (O-B-MCDE/O-B-UNCDE). It was found that electrochemical reduction of all tested analytes (except GMP) is possible at H-B-MCDE. On the other hand, electrochemical reduction of all selected analytes (except dsDNA) is possible at O-B-MCDE/O-B-UNCDE. Ambient oxygen and preadsorption step in the manner of incubation of the corresponding sensor in the analyte solution for 30 s had a profound effect on the repeatability of the results and, in the case of H-B-MCDE, also on the magnitude of voltammetric signals and the possibility of electrochemical reduction of dGMP. The use of the proposed sensors and their main advantages and disadvantages for the voltammetric determination of the tested analytes (demonstrated via electrochemical reduction of AMP) in the presence of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is also discussed.