Tetraoctylammonium bromide stabilized gold nanoparticles (TOAB-AuNPs) attached to 1,6-hexanedithiol (HDT) modified Au electrode was used for the simultaneous determination of paracetamol (PA) and ascorbic acid (AA) at physiological pH. The attachment of TOAB-AuNPs on HDT modified Au surface was confirmed by attenuated total reflectance (ATR)-FT-IR spectroscopy and atomic force microscope (AFM). The ATR-FT-IR spectrum of TOAB-AuNPs attached to the HDT monolayer showed a characteristic stretching modes corresponding to -CH2 and -CH3 of TOAB, confirming the immobilization of AuNPs with surface-protecting TOAB ions on the surface of the AuNPs after being attached to HDT modified Au electrode. AFM image showed that the immobilized AuNPs were spherical in shape and densely packed to a film of ca. 7 nm thickness. Interestingly, TOAB-AuNPs modified electrode shifted the oxidation potential of PA towards less positive potential by 70 mV and enhanced its oxidation current twice when compared to bare Au electrode. In addition, the AuNPs modified electrode separated the oxidation potentials of AA and PA by 210 mV, whereas bare Au electrode failed to resolve them. The amperometry current of PA was increased linearly from 1.50 x 10(-7) to 1.34 x 10(-5) M with a correlation coefficient of 0.9981 and the lowest detection limit was found to be 2.6 nM (S/N = 3). The present method was successfully used to determine the concentration of PA in human blood plasma and commercial drugs. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.