A Rationally Designed Thymidine-Based Self-Assembled Monolayer on a Gold Electrode for Electroanalytical Applications.

A self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of 1-(3,5-epidithio-2,3,5-trideoxy-β-D-threo-pentofuranosyl)thymine (EFT) on a gold electrode was prepared and characterized by Raman spectral and electrochemical measurements. Voltammetric and electrochemical impedance measurements show that the SAM of EFT on a Au electrode impedes the electron-transfer reaction. The SAM of EFT was successfully used for the voltammetric sensing of urate in neutral solution. The coexisting ascorbate anion does not interfere and therefore the EFT-based electrode was able to quantify urate at the micromolar level in the presence of a large excess amount of ascorbate. To demonstrate the practical applications, the amount of urate in two different human serum samples was quantified by using the EFT-based electrode; the results are in good agreement with those determined by the clinical method. DFT calculations show that both ascorbate and urate have noncovalent interactions including hydrogen-bonding interactions with EFT.