A novel and uniform gold nanoparticles/tryptophan-functionalized graphene nanocomposite (AuNPs/Trp-GR) has been successfully fabricated by directly electrochemical depositing gold onto the surface of tryptophan-functionalized graphene (Trp-GR). The nanostructure of AuNPs/Trp-GR was characterized by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). It was demonstrated that Au nanoparticles were well dispersed on the surface of Trp-GR which might attribute to the more binding sites provided by Trp-GR for the formation of Au nanoparticles. The electrocatalytic activity of the AuNPs/Trp-GR towards the dopamine (DA) was systematically investigated using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). Under optimum conditions, a wide and valuable linear range (0.5-411 mu M), a low detection limit (0.056 mu M, S/N = 3), good repeatability and stability were obtained for the determination of DA. Furthermore, the modified electrode was successfully applied to real samples analysis. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.