In the present study, voltammetric sensors for tyrosine are designed and developed via various modifications on glassy carbon electrode such as polypyrrole coated GCE, molecularly imprinted polypyrrole coated GCE (MIPPy) and in situ copper oxide modified MIPPy coated GCE. Of these, in situ copper oxide modified MIPPy coated GCE sensor responds to tyrosine
concentrations in the range 1 10-8 to 1 10-6 and 2 10-6 to 8 10-6M with a very low detection limit
of 4.0 10-9M and by far the most sensitive one. Detailed linear sweep voltammetric and chronoamperometric
experiments were undertaken to investigate the electrocatalytic behavior of tyrosine. The
electron transfer coefficient, diffusion coefficient and charge transfer rate constants involved in the sensing
process using in situ copper oxide modified MIPPy film coated GCE are 0.47, 1.88
10-6 cm2 s-1,
4.7106 L mol-1 s-1, respectively. Furthermore, the designed sensor is highly selective and has been
applied successfully for the analysis of synthetic and real samples of human urine.