A novel flow injection amperometric method for sensitive determination of total antioxidant capacity at cupric-neocuproine complex modified MWCNT glassy carbon electrode

A novel amperometric method is presented for the determination of total antioxidant capacity in flow injection analysis (FIA) system using copper(II)-neocuproine complex modified on Nafion-functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotube-glassy carbon electrode ([Cu(Ncp)₂²⁺]/Nf@f-MWCNT/GCE). Cyclic voltammetric studies showed that the modified electrode exhibits a very well-formed reversible redox couple for Cu(II)-/Cu(I)-complex. In addition, the [Cu(Ncp)₂²⁺]/[Cu(Ncp)₂⁺] redox pair shows very good electrocatalytic activity towards the oxidation of polyphenolic compounds (PPhCs) such as trolox, catechin, and quercetin due to the enhancement of the anodic peak current of the redox couple in the presence of these analytes. This electrocatalytic oxidation current at the [Cu(Ncp)₂²⁺]/Nf@f-MWCNT/GCE was used for flow injection (FI) amperometric determination of PPhCs. FI amperometric-time curves recorded under optimized conditions (applied potential: + 0.6 V vs. Ag/AgCl/KCl_(0.10 M), flow rate: 2 mL/min) showed that the proposed electrode had a wide linear range (LR) with a very low detection limit (LOD) for PPhCs. LR and LOD were 0.5-800 and 0.2 µM for trolox, respectively and 0.50-250 and 0.14 µM, respectively, for both quercetin and catechin. This sensitive method was successfully applied to the amperometric measurement of total antioxidant capacity (TAC) of some herbal teas, giving compatible results with the spectrophotometric CUPRAC method. The proposed method gave higher rank to fast-reacting antioxidants; it was equally precise but had a wider linear range and lower LOD than the spectrophotometric CUPRAC assay (e.g., LOD for ascorbic acid and gallic acid were 0.07 and 0.08 μM, respectively), and similar electroanalytical methods using the CUPRAC reagent.

Hydrazine Hydrate Accelerates Neocuproine-Copper Complex Generation and Utilization in Alkyne Reduction, a Significant Supplement Method for Catalytic Hydrogenation

Diimine (HN═NH) is a strong reducing agent, but the efficiency of diimine oxidized from hydrazine hydrate or its derivatives is still not good enough. Herein, we report an in situ neocuproine-copper complex formation method. The redox potential of this complex enable it can serve as an ideal redox catalyst in the synthesis of diimine by oxidation of hydrazine hydrate, and we successfully applied this technique in the reduction of alkynes. This reduction method displays a broad functional group tolerance and substrate adaptability as well as the advantages of safety and high efficiency. Especially, nitro, benzyl, boc, and sulfur containing alkynes can be reduced to the corresponding alkanes directly, which provides a useful complementary method to traditional catalytic hydrogenation. Besides, we applied this method in the preparation of the Alzheimer's disease drug CT-1812 and studied the mechanism.