Application of spectroelectroanalysis for the quantitative determination of mixtures of compounds with highly overlapping signals

Abstract

The amount of qualitative and quantitative information provided by a UV–vis absorption spectroelectrochemistry (SEC) experiment is sometimes wasted. However, almost all electrochemical and spectroscopic data can provide valuable information. In this spirit, the main objective proposed in this work is the quantitative resolution of catechol/dopamine (CAT/DA) and dopamine/epinephrine (DA/EP) mixtures, using spectroelectrochemical sensors in long optical path length arrangement based on bare optical fibers in parallel configuration with respect to carbon nanotubes or screen-printed electrodes. These compounds show extremely similar electrochemical and spectroscopic responses at high acidic pH, being impossible to determine their concentrations in the mixtures just using univariate regression models. To our knowledge, the SEC ability to resolve complex mixtures has never been demonstrated before with signals with this degree of overlapping. The quantitative analysis of these mixtures is possible using multivariate regression analysis of a set of time-resolved spectroelectrochemical data with a powerful statistical tool such as parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC). PARAFAC enables us to extract all the information from the experiments, allowing us to quantify the different analytes in mixtures of varying concentrations with excellent results. This milestone for spectroelectroanalysis illustrates the expected capabilities of SEC and demonstrates experimentally the potential of this technique for sensing of biomolecules.