Advanced functional materials for electrochemical dopamine sensors

Dopamine (DA) is the most prevalent neurotransmitter in the brain and plays a crucial role in several pathologies, such as Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia. Early diagnosis of these pathologies is crucial and requires the development of highly effective detection methods. In this review, we cover advances in the development and use of electrochemical DA sensors over the last five years and identify areas for improvement for their use in clinical applications. We focus on how the performance of these sensors can be improved by functionalizing a variety of materials, including metal, polymer, ionic liquid, and carbon, to detect low levels of DA from nanomoles to femtomoles. Although many of the sensors have a limit of detection in synthetic solutions that meets or exceeds the concentration range of DA in biofluids, they have yet to achieve these levels in real samples due to the presence of interferents with similar redox potentials. To detect DA simultaneously with other analytes such as uric acid and ascorbic acid, higher selectivity and lower limits of detection are necessary. We believe that this review will contribute to the future development of improved DA sensors for clinically relevant applications.