The oxidative electrochemistry of nicotine was measured in aqueous solution at a multi-walled carbon nanotube modified basal-plane pyrolytic graphite electrode. Quantitative detection of nicotine was obtained with a limit of detection of 1.5μM (based on 3σ) and a linear range of at least up to 1mM. Evidence was found for a mass transport regime that included thin-layer (within the multi-walled carbon nanotubes) as well as semi-infinite (from bulk solution) diffusional signatures, adding to the growing picture that the fundamental source of the 'electrocatalytic' properties claimed of many porous and multi-walled carbon nanotube-based modified electrodes may, at least in some cases, be due to mass transport effects rather than electronic or structural peculiarities of the modifying layers.

Effects of Thin-Layer Diffusion in the Electrochemical Detection of Nicotine on Basal Plane Pyrolytic Graphite (BPPG) Electrodes Modified with Layers of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNT-BPPG). Sims, M.J., Rees, N.V., Dickinson, E.J.F., Compton, R.G.: Sensors and Actuators, B, 2010, 144[1], 153-8