Determination of Caffeine: A Comprehensive Review on Electrochemical Methods

Caffeine is a psychoactive substance in daily human life which plays an important role in food and drug chemistry. The beverages such as coffee, tea, cola or drug formulations belong to the significant economic products in which the highest quality in international business is demanded. In respect to an ascending number of samples, the novel and perspective analytical methods for determination of caffeine providing accurate and reliable results are necessary. Electrochemical methods have been commonly exploited as cheap, rapid and simple alternatives to modern separation and spectral methods. To-date however, a comprehensive review on the electrochemical determination of caffeine has not been reported. Herein the present paper gives a summary on the current state in this field. The major part deals with the use of bare and modified carbon-based electrodes as voltammetric sensors for determination of caffeine. Amperometric, potentiometric and piezoelectric methods are also discussed in this review.