(680e) Novel Nickel Porous Nanoparticles and Their Application for the Electrochemical Detection of Serotonin

Sensing is vital to the healthcare industry in order to diagnose patients with accuracy and in a timely manner.  Among many sensing platforms, electrochemical sensing is a fast, reliable, sensitive, and low cost method to improve conventional biosensing techniques.  Herein we show the electrochemical detection of serotonin, a neurotransmitter linked to psychiatric diseases including depression and anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and addiction, using novel porous nickel nanoparticles.  These porous nanoparticles are synthesized by a galvanic replacement reaction between an aluminum nanoparticle template and nickel metal ions. The sensor set-up consists of a 3-electrode cell with working, reference (Ag/AgCl), and counter (Pt) electrodes.  A glassy carbon electrode modified with porous nickel nanoparticles functions as the working electrode. Due to the increase in surface area, these porous nanostructures have promise as electrocatalysts.  It was found that these nickel porous nanoparticles enhance the sensitivity of the electrode towards the oxidation of serotonin with a detection limit of about 25 nM.