A Nafion/multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) composite film-modified electrode was fabricated and applied to the sensitive and convenient determination of theophylline (TP). Multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were easily dispersed homogeneously into 0.1% Nafion methanol solution by sonication. Appropriate amount of Nafion/MWNTs suspension was coated on a glassy carbon electrode. After evaporating methanol, a Nafion/MWNTs composite film-modified electrode was achieved. TP could effectively accumulate at Nafion/MWNTs composite film-modified electrode and cause a sensitive anodic peak at around 1180 mV (vs SCE) in 0.01 mol/L H₂SO₄ medium (pH 1.8). In contrast with the bare glassy carbon electrode, Nafion film-modified electrode, Nafion/MWNTs film-modified electrode could remarkably increase the anodic peak current and decreased the overpotential of TP oxidation. Under the optimized conditions, the anodic peak current was proportional to TP concentration in the range of $8.0 \times 10^{-8}-6.0 \times 10^{-5}$ mol/L, with a detection limit of $2.0 \times 10^{-8}$ mol/L. This newly developed method was used to determine TP in drug samples with good percentage of recoveries.

Through a facile electrochemical method, we prepared an electrochemically reduced graphene oxide (ERGO)/multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) hybrid film modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE), and characterized it by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) The experimental results demonstrated that ERGO-MWNTs/GCE exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity toward rutin as evidenced by the significant enhancement of redox peak currents in comparison with a bare GCE, ERGO/GCE and MWNTs/GCE. This method has been applied for the direct determination of rutin in real samples with satisfactory results.

Superoxide anion radical (O^•−₂ ) is a noxious reactive oxygen species (ROS). Transition metal ion complexes have been generally used as antioxidants to eliminate ROS. In this work, a neoteric watersoluble biopolymer metal complex (BSA-M) was prepared by conjugating the soluble biopolymer bovineserum albumin (BSA) with three transition metal ions (M, M=Cu, Co, Mn). The binding mode and ratio of metal ions bound to albumin were investigated. The BSA-M complexes were characterized by UV-Vis, circular dichroism (CD) spectra and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). BSA served as polymerscaffold and the metal complex functioned as the catalytic active center. The results demonstrated that the structure of BSA remained unchanged when the binding ratio of transition metal ion complex to BSA was 5:1. Furthermore, the scavenging superoxide anion free radical (O^•−&#8322 ) activity of biopolymer-metal complexes were determined by nitroblue tetrazolium light reduction assay method. The antioxidant capacity of BSA-M has markedly increased. The conjugated BSA-M (M=Cu, Mn) showed preeminent scavenging activity for O^•−&#8322 , and the EC₅₀ value of the BSA-Cu was 0.038±0.0013μmol·L⁻¹, which is comparable to EC₅₀ value (0.041±0.001μmol·L⁻¹) of the natural superoxide dismutase (SOD), the analog quantity reached 107%. As a consequence, it can be considered as a bio-functional mimic of enzyme SOD and has a promising application prospect in antioxidant drug field.