Chemically inert and biocompatible boron-doped diamond (BDD) has been successfully used in neuroscience for sensitive neurochemicals sensing and/or as a growth substrate for neurons. In this study, several types of BDD differing in (i) fabrication route, i.e. conventional microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (MW-PECVD) reactor vs. MW-PECVD with linear antenna delivery system, (ii) morphology, i.e. planar vs. porous BDD, and (iii) surface treatment, i.e. H-terminated (H-BDDs) vs. O-terminated (O-BDDs), were characterized from a morphological, structural, and electrochemical point of view. Further, planar and porous BDD-based electrodes were tested for sensing of dopamine in common biomimicking environments of pH 7.4, namely phosphate buffer (PB) and HEPES buffered saline (HBS). In HBS, potential windows are narrowed due to electrooxidation of its buffering component (i.e. HEPES), however, dopamine sensing in HBS is possible. H-BDDs (both planar and porous) outperformed O-BDDs as they provided clearer dopamine signals with higher peak currents. As expected, due to its enlarged surface area and increased sp2 content, the highest sensitivity and lowest detection limits of 8 × 10-8 mol L-1 and 6 × 10-8 mol L-1 in PB and HBS media, respectively, were achieved by square-wave voltammetry on porous H-BDD.

Charles University Faculty of Science Department of Analytical Chemistry UNESCO Laboratory of Environmental Electrochemistry Albertov 6 128 00 Prague Czech Republic

Charles University Faculty of Science Department of Analytical Chemistry UNESCO Laboratory of Environmental Electrochemistry Albertov 6 128 00 Prague Czech Republic; University of Lodz Faculty of Chemistry Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry Tamka 12 91 403 Łódź Poland

FZU Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences Na Slovance 2 182 21 Prague Czech Republic

FZU Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences Na Slovance 2 182 21 Prague Czech Republic; Czech Technical University Prague Faculty of Biomedical Engineering Sítná Sq 3105 272 01 Kladno Czech Republic

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