Electrochemical Detection of 2‐Naphthol at a Glassy Carbon Electrode Modified with Tosflex Film

In this study, a Tosflex (a perfluoro‐anion‐exchange membrane) modified glassy carbon electrode has been used to detect 2‐naphthalenol (2‐naphthol) in aqueous solutions in order to demonstrate the electroanalytical application of Tosflex. 2‐naphthol polymerizes upon electrochemical oxidation at a glassy carbon electrode; however, the current related to this oxidation is too small for analytical purpose at low concentration level. A Tosflex polymer modified glassy carbon electrode (TFGCE) was found of having capability to improve the detection limit because 2‐naphthol molecules deprotonated in basic solutions to form 2‐naphtholate anions that were accumulated to TFGCE by the anion‐exchange characteristic of Tosflex. The accumulated 2‐naphtholate anions were determined with the following differential pulse voltammetry. With 3 minutes accumulation at +0.05 V, the dependence of oxidation current versus concentration was linear from 8×10^?7 M to 1×10^?5 M with a regression coefficient of 0.999 and a detection limit of 2×10^?7 M. Unlike many other anion‐exchange polymer modified electrodes, the TFGCE is stable at highly basic condition.