Electrochemical Determination of Pyrogallol at Conducting Poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) Film‐Modified Screen‐Printed Carbon Electrodes

The electrochemical oxidation of pyrogallol at electrogenerated poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) film‐modified screen‐printed carbon electrodes (SPCE) was investigated. The voltammetric peak for the oxidation of pyrogallol in a pH 7 buffer solution at the modified electrode occurred at 0.13 V, much lower than the bare SPCE and preanodized SPCE. The experimental parameters, including electropolymerization conditions, solution pH values and applied potentials were optimized to improve the voltammetric responses. A linear calibration plot, based on flow‐injection amperometry, was obtained for 1–1000 µM pyrogallol, and a slope of 0.030 µA/µM was obtained. The detection limit (S/N=3) was 0.63 µM.     

Carbon Nanotube‐Adsorbed Electrospun Nanofibrous Membranes as Coating for Electrochemical Sensors for Sulfhydryl Compounds

A new method to modify electrodes with carbon nanotubes (CNT) was developed. Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNT) were adsorbed on the electrospun nylon‐6 nanofibrous membranes (Ny‐6‐NFM) and used as a coating to modify conventional glassy carbon electrodes. The modified electrode was designed for the amperometric detection of sulfhydryl compounds with the potential held at +0.3 V vs. Ag/AgCl. The modified electrode showed a linear response for cysteine up to 0.4 mM (R²=0.997), with a sensitivity of 5.1 µA/mM and a detection limit of 15 µM. Other sulfhydryl compounds showed similar results. After use, the Ny‐6‐NFM was easily peeled off, leaving the bare electrode surface back to its original electrochemical behaviour. This is the first attempt to use a disposable membrane functionalized with MWNT for electroanalytical purposes.     

Flow‐Injection Pulsed‐Amperometric Determination of Free Glycerol in Biodiesel at a Gold Electrode

This work reports the highly‐sensitive amperometric determination of free glycerol in biodiesel at a gold electrode adapted in a flow‐injection analysis (FIA) cell. The amperometric method involved the continuous application of three sequential pulses to the working electrode (+250 mV, +700 mV, and ?200 mV, for 100 ms each). This sequence of potential pulses eliminated electrode passivation and dramatically increased the analytical signal. The proposed FIA‐amperometric method presented low relative standard deviation between injections (1.5 %, n=15), high analytical frequency (85 h^?1), satisfactory recovery values (93–118 %) for spiked samples, wide linear range (from 1 to 300 µmol L^?1), and low detection limit (0.5 µmol L^?1).     

Electrochemical Behavior and Electroanalytical Determination of Indole‐3‐Acetic Acid Phytohormone on a Boron‐Doped Diamond Electrode

In this work, a boron‐doped diamond (BDD) electrode was used for the electroanalytical determination of indole‐3‐acetic acid (IAA) phytohormone by square‐wave voltammetry. IAA yielded a well‐defined voltammetric response at +0.93 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) in Britton–Robinson buffer, pH 2.0. The process could be used to determine IAA in the concentration range of 5.0 to 50.0 µM (n=8, r=0.997), with a detection limit of 1.22 µM. The relative standard deviation of ten measurements was 2.09 % for 20.0 µM IAA. As an example, the practical applicability of BDD electrode was tested with the measurement of IAA in some plant seeds.     

Electrochemical Detection of Persulfate at the Modified Glassy Carbon Electrode with Nanocomposite Containing Nano‐Ruthenium Oxide/Thionine and Nano‐Ruthenium Oxide/Celestine Blue

The present study describes the fabrication of a sensitive amperometric sensor for the determination of persulfate. The immobilization surface was prepared by modifying a glassy carbon (GC) electrode with a nanocomposite containing ruthenium oxide (RuOx) nanoparticles and thionine (TH) or celestin blue (CB). The modified electrodes indicated excellent electrocatalytic activity toward persulfate reduction at a potential of +0.1 V. The proposed sensor showed detection limits of 1.46 µM for the GC/RuOx/TH modified electrode and 2.64 µM for the GC/RuOx/CB modified electrode. The sensitivities were obtained as 3 nA µM^?1 at a concentration range of 10 µM to 11 mM for the GC/RuOx/TH modified electrode and 1 nA µM^?1 at a concentration range of 10 µM to 6 mM for the GC/RuOx/CB modified electrodes.     

Electrochemical Determination of Oxalate at Pyrolytic Graphite Electrodes

The electrocatalytic oxidation of oxalate at several carbon based electrodes including basal plane (BPPG) and edge plane (EPPG) pyrolytic graphite and glassy carbon (GC) electrode, was studied. The electrodes were examined for the sensing of oxalate ions in aqueous solutions and all three electrodes showed a response to oxalate additions. The peak of oxalate oxidation at BPPG electrode appeared at lower potential, +1.13 V vs. SCE, than at EPPG (+1.20 V vs. SCE) and GC electrode (+1.44 V vs. SCE). Oxalate oxidation at BPPG electrode was studied in more details for response characteristics (potential and current), effects of pH, temporal characteristics of response potential and current. The results indicated that oxalate oxidation proceeds as two‐electron process at the BPPG electrode with a transfer coefficient β and a diffusion coefficient D evaluated to be 0.45 and 1.03 (±0.04)×10^?5 cm² s^?1 respectively. The BPPG electrode was found to be suitable for oxalate determination in aqueous media showing linear response to oxalate concentration with a sensitivity of 0.039 AM^?1 and a limit of detection of 0.7 μM.     

Electropolymerized Eugenol‐MWNT‐Based Electrode for Voltammetric Evaluation of Wine Antioxidant Capacity

Eugenol electropolymerization conditions on multiwalled carbon nanotube based glassy carbon electrode (MWNT/GCE) have been found. The polyeugenol/MWNT/GCE shows reversible redox steps of o‐quinone fragment in acidic media. Natural phenolic antioxidants are oxidized on polyeugenol/MWNT/GCE at 0.52 V excluding resveratrol (0.62 V). Differential pulse voltammetry on polyeugenol/MWNT/GCE was applied for the evaluation of wine antioxidant capacity (AOC). The AOC was expressed in catechin equivalents per 1 L of wine. The linear dynamic range is 1.00–250 µM with LOD and LOQ of 0.21 and 0.71 µM of catechin, respectively. Positive correlations for AOC with antioxidant activity (r=0.9840) and total phenolics content (r=0.9944) were observed.     

Electrochemical Studies of Inclusion Complex Formed Between Glutathione and β‐cyclodextrin‐modified Carbon Electrodes and its Application for Determination of Glutathione

In this work, the electrochemical determination of glutathione (GSH) using β‐cyclodextrin (β‐CD) modified carbon electrodes was carried out. Different methodologies were used to modify the electrodes. In the first part of this paper, we analyze and compare the ability of the electrodes to determine GSH using the different β‐CD‐modified electrodes and cyclic voltammetry. We found that the carbon paste electrode modified by potential sweeping was the best electrode for GSH determination; in addition, we found that an inclusion complex formed between β‐CD deposited on the electrode surface and GSH. The formation constant for this complex was 2498.54 M^?1 at 25 °C. Furthermore, we have also calculated thermodynamic parameters for the formation of the inclusion complex. In the second part of this paper, we analyze the effect of sweep rate and pH on the determination of GSH. The best results were obtained at a rate of 50 mV s^?1 and a pH of 2.2. The β‐CD‐modified carbon paste electrode exhibits a linear response in a concentration range of 20 to 157 µM with a sensitivity of 1083.65 µA mM^?1cm^?2 and a detection limit of 3.92 µM. Finally, the electrode was used to determine the GSH concentration in Eichhornia crassipes root extract, and the concentration determination accuracy was validated by a well‐known spectroscopic method.     

Screen‐Printed Electrodes for Amperometric Determination of Iodide

An amperometric method for the determination of iodide ions has been developed using disposable, screen‐printed electrodes. The used sensors have a gold, graphite and platinum working electrodes with an area of about 7 mm². Calibration curves exhibit a linear relationship between the electrode response and the iodide concentration up to 3.00 mM. The correlation coefficients for all calibration curves varied from 0.988 to 0.998. The relative standard deviations were equal to or less than 5.26 % (n=5). The lowest iodide concentration measured was 100 µM.     

Detection of Thiols by o‐Quinone Nanocomposite Modified Electrodes

A chemically modified glassy carbon (GC) electrode was developed as an amperometric sensor for detection of biological thiols. The electrode was modified by inclusion of co‐enzyme pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) and a co‐catalyst of oxidized single wall carbon nanotubes (Ox‐SWNT) into a gold polypyrrole (Au‐PPy) nanocomposite matrix. The electrode (PQQ/Ox‐SWNT/Au‐PPy/GC) was characterized using scanning electron microscopy and cyclic voltammetry. Optimal conditions for the PQQ/Ox‐SWNT/Au‐PPy/GC electrode were determined and then utilized for the amperometric detection of L‐cysteine, N‐acetyl‐L‐cysteine, L‐penicillamine and D, L‐glutathione. The electrochemical response for each thiol in pH 3.2 citrate phosphate buffer at +450 mV (vs. Ag/AgCl) was found to be linear with limit of detections (LOD, S/N=3) ranging from 0.50 µM for L‐penicillamine to 1.55 µM for D, L‐glutathione with sensitivities of 30.2 nA/µM and 3.6 nA/µM respectively. The electrode design is simple and easy to construct using a minimum amount of co‐enzyme and co‐catalyst, resulting in detection methods with very good stability and improved sensitivity for thiol detection.     

Determination of Sulfite in Hair Waving Products Using Oxygen‐Incorporated Gold‐Modified Screen‐Printed Electrodes

An electrodeposition oxygen‐incorporated gold‐modified screen‐printed carbon electrode (AuOSPE) was fabricated to determine the sulfite content in hair waving products. The AuOSPE showed an electrocatalytic current for sulfite at +0.4 V (vs. Ag/AgCl). Compared with a gold screen‐printed electrode (AuSPE), the AuOSPE showed a higher electrocatalytic current. The increase in the electrocatalytic current was ascribed to the increase of the oxygen incorporated with gold atom on AuOSPE. The AuOSPE coupled with a flow injection analysis (FIA) system showed excellent oxidation current for sulfite in a 0.1 mol L^?1 phosphate buffer solution (PBS), pH 6.0. The linear working range for determining the sulfite content was 0.05 to 1200 mg L^?1 (0.625 µmol L^?1 to 15.00 mmol L^?1) with a calculated detection limit of 0.03 mg L^?1 (0.375 µmol L^?1) (DL, S/N=3). Relative standard deviations (RSD) of 3.03 %, 2.30 % and 4.26 % were calculated for consecutive injections (n=12) of 20, 300 and 900 mg L^?1 sulfite, respectively. The amount of sulfite in two hair waving products was determined by the proposed method and a standard iodometric method. The recoveries ranged from 96.18 % to 105.61 %. The AuOSPE showed high sensitivity, selectivity, stability and reproducibility for sulfite.     

Electrocatalytic Oxidation and Determination of Hydrazine at an AuCu Nanoparticles – Graphene – Ionic Liquid Composite Film Coated Glassy Carbon Electrode

Gold‐copper alloy nanoparticles (AuCu NPs) were electrodeposited on a graphene – ionic liquid composite film (EGN‐IL). The AuCu NPs showed high electrocatalysis to the oxidation of hydrazine with a catalytic reaction rate constant of about 5.0×10⁴ mol/Ls. In phosphate buffer solutions (pH 6.8) the oxidation current of hydrazine at 0.15 V (vs. SCE) at the resulting electrode (AuCu? EGN‐IL/GCE) was linear to its concentration in the range of 0.2–110 µM with a sensitivity of 56.7 µA/mM, and the detection limit was 0.1 µM (S/N=3). The electrode was successfully applied to the determination of waste water.     

Efficient Electrocatalytic Detection of Epinephrine at Gold Electrodes Modified with Self‐Assembled Metallo‐Octacarboxyphthalocyanine Complexes

Electrocatalysis of epinephrine at gold electrode pre‐modified with the self‐assembled monolayer of cysteamine and subsequently integrated with novel metallo‐octacarboxyphthalocyanine (MOCPc where M=Fe, Co and Mn) complexes (Au‐Cys‐MOCPc) was investigated. The electrodes showed response to the presence of epinephrine. The oxidation peak potential (E_p/V vs. Ag|AgCl, sat'd KCl) and charge transfer resistance (R_ct (kΩ)) in epinephrine solution depend markedly on the central metal of the phthalocyanine cores: Au‐Cys‐FeOCPck_ch=4.1×10⁷ M^?1 s^?1) which is higher than that of the Au‐cys‐CoOCPc or Au‐cys‐MnOCPc electrode. Mechanism, recognizing the mediation of the electrocatalytic process by the central M(II)/M(III) redox processes was proposed. Epinephrine electro‐oxidation at the Au‐cys‐FeOCPc electrode was studied in more details for the response characteristics. The diffusion coefficient of epinephrine was evaluated as (2.62±0.23)×10^?9 cm² s^?1. It was established that Au‐Cys‐FeOCPc is suitable for sensitive determination of epinephrine in physiological pH (7.40) conditions showing linear concentration range of up to 300 nM, with excellent sensitivity (0.53±0.01 nA nM^?1), and very low limits of detection (13.8 nM) and quantification (45.8 nM). The peak separation between ascorbic acid and epinephrine is large enough (190 mV) to permit simultaneous determination of both epinephrine and ascorbic acid in physiological pH 7.4 conditions using the Au‐cys‐FeOCPc electrode. Au‐cys‐FeOCPc electrode was successfully used for the determination of epinephrine in epinephrine hydrochloric acid injection with recovery of ca. 98.4%.     

Electrochemical Detection of Metals Using Thick Nanofibrous Nafion Web Modified Electrodes

In this work, GC electrodes modified with thick electrospun nanofibrous Nafion webs were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) and used for the extraction and electrochemical detection of cadmium by differential pulse voltammetry. Cadmium was detected after 10 min incubation at open circuit followed by anodic stripping using 60 s reduction at ?1.4 V. The electrode yielded well‐defined, undistorted and reproducible (RSD of 7.0 % based on 10 measurements) voltammetric response with two linear ranges from 0.1 to 3 µM (R²=0.994 ) and from 3 to 10 µM (R²=0.977) and a detection limit and sensitivity of 0.01 µM and 32 and 7.725 µA/µM for both linear portions of the curve respectively.     

Development of a Carbon Paste Electrode Modified with Reduced Graphene Oxide and an Imidazole Derivative for Simultaneous Determination of Biological Species of N‐acetyl‐L‐cysteine,Uric Acid and Dopamine

In this work, the modified carbon paste electrode (CPE) with an imidazole derivative 2‐(2,3 dihydroxy phenyl) 4‐methyl benzimidazole (DHPMB) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) was used as an electrochemical sensor for electrocatalytic oxidation of N‐acetyl‐L‐cysteine (NAC). The electrocatalytic oxidation of N‐acetyl‐L‐cysteine on the modified electrode surface was then investigated, indicating a reduction in oxidative over voltage and an intensive increase in the current of analyte. The scan rate potential, the percentages of DHPMB and RGO, and the pH solution were optimized. Under the optimum conditions, some parameters such as the electron transfer coefficient (α) between electrode and modifier, and the electron transfer rate constant) k_s) in a 0.1 M phosphate buffer solution (pH=7.0) were obtained by cyclic voltammetry method. The diffusion coefficient of species (D) 3.96×10^?5 cm² s^?1 was calculated by chronoamperometeric technique and the Tafel plot was used to calculate α (0.46) for N‐ acetyl‐L‐cysteine. Also, by using differential pulse voltammetric (DPV) technique, two linear dynamic ranges of 2–18 µM and 18–1000 µM with the detection limit of 61.0 nM for N‐acetyl‐L‐cysteine (NAC) were achieved. In the co‐existence system of N‐acetyl‐L‐cysteine (NAC), uric acid (UA) and dopamine (DA), the linear response ranges for NAC, UA, and DA are 6.0–400.0 µM, 5.0–50.0 µM and 2.0–20.0 µM, respectively and the detection limits based on (C=3s_b/m) are 0.067 µM, 0.246 µM and 0.136 µM, respectively. The obtained results indicated that DHPMB/RGO/CPE is applicable to separate NAC, uric acid (UA) and dopamine (DA) oxidative peaks, simultaneously. For analytic performance, the mentioned modified electrode was used for determination of NAC in the drug samples with acceptable results, and the simultaneous determination of NAC, UA and DA oxidative peaks was investigated in the serum solutions, too.     

1‐Pyrrolidine Dicarbodithioate Based Electrodes for Determination of Iron(III) in Lubrication Oil

The lipophillic ammonium salt of 1‐pyrrolidine dicarbodithioic acid (PCDT) (I) was introduced as a new selective ionophore for an iron selective electrode. In addition, the effect of immobilization of 18‐crown‐6 (18CE6) (membrane type‐II), on the electrode performance was discussed. The slope of the PCDT‐based (I) electrode was (20 mV/decade). The linear concentration range was (10^?5–10^?1 M) after one day doping. The detection limit for electrode type‐(II) was (1.3×10^?6 M). For membrane with only 18CE6 (type‐III) the linear range and the detection limit were improved (10^?5–10^?1 M and 3.2×10^?6 M, respectively). The pH‐range was between 5–11 for type‐II, and III electrodes, while it was 7–11 for type‐I electrode. Most of the common cations were tested for the evaluation of the electrode selectivity with correlation to the ionic radii of the tested cations. Among them only Ag⁺ and Pb²⁺ were the real interference for type‐III electrode. Application of using the electrode for the determination of iron in lubrication oil samples was performed with RSD (1.77–2.7%) and (1.01–2.3%) for type‐II and III electrodes, respectively. The corresponding recovery ranges were (93.0–99.9%) and (96.3–100%). The obtained results were compared to those of an atomic absorption spectrophotometric method.     

A Novel Three‐Electrode System Fabricated on Polymethyl Methacrylate for On‐Chip Electrochemical Detection

A new strategy of three‐electrode system fabrication in polymer‐based microfluidic systems is described here. Standard lithography, hot embossing and UV‐assisted thermal bonding were employed for fabrication and assembly of the microfluidic chip. For the electrode design the gold working (WE) and counter electrodes (CE) are placed inside a main channel through which the sample solution passes. A silver reference electrode (RE) is embedded in a small side channel containing KCl solution that is continuously pushed into the main channel. In the present work, the overall electrochemical set up and its microfabrication is described. Conditions including silver ion concentration, cyclic voltammetry (CV) settings, and the flow rate of KCl solution in the RE channel were optimized. The electrochemical performance of the three‐electrode system was evaluated by CV and also by amperometric oxidation of ferro hexacyanide ([Fe(CN)₆]^4?) and ruthenium bipyridyl ([Ru(bipy)₃]²⁺) at 400 mV and 1200 mV, respectively. CV analysis using ferri/ferro hexacyanide showed a stable, quasi‐reversible redox reaction at the electrodes with 96 mV peak separation and an anodic/cathodic peak ratio of 1. Amperometric analysis of the electrochemical species resulted in linear correlation between analyte concentration and current response in the range of 0.5–15 µM for [Fe(CN)₆]^4?, and 0–1000 µM for [Ru(bipy)₃]²⁺. Upon the given experimental conditions, the limit of detection was found to be 3.15 µM and 24.83 µM for [Fe(CN)₆]^4? and [Ru(bipy)₃]²⁺, respectively. As a fully integrated three‐electrode system that is fabricated on polymer substrates, it has great applications in microfluidic‐based systems requiring stable electrochemical detection.     

Simultaneous Determination of Trace Zinc and Cadmium by Anodic Stripping Voltammetry Using a Polymeric Film Nanoparticle Self‐Assembled Electrode

A promising modified electrode was fabricated by polymerization a conductive polymer film of dipicolinic acid (DPA) onto gold nanoparticle (AuNP)‐cysteine‐gold electrode (Au). The morphology of poly(DPA)‐AuNP‐Au electrode was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). This chemically modified electrode was used for electrochemical determination of cadmium and zinc in aqueous media using differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry. The result showed that the modified electrode could clearly resolve the anodic stripping peaks of zinc and cadmium. The linear analytical curves were obtained in the ranges of 0.020–25.0 and 0.045–17.0 µM for zinc and cadmium respectively. The limit of detections (S/N=3) were 0.008 µM for zinc and 0.015 µM for cadmium.     

Electrochemistry of Levo‐Thyroxin on Edge‐Plane Pyrolytic Graphite Electrode: Application to Sensitive Analytical Determinations

The electrochemical response of sodium levo‐thyroxin (T₄) at the surface of an edge plane pyrolytic graphite (EPPG) electrode is investigated using cyclic voltammetric technique in the presence of 0.1 M HCl as supporting electrolyte. T₄ underwent totally irreversible oxidation at this system and a well‐defined peak at 821 mV was obtained. Compared to the signals obtained in the optimized conditions at bare glassy carbon and carbon paste electrodes, the oxidation current of T₄ at an EPPG electrode was greatly enhanced. The electrochemical process of T₄ was explored and the experimental conditions were optimized. The oxidation peak current represented a linear dependence on T₄ concentration from 0.01 to 10 µM. The detection limit of 3 nM (S/N=3) was obtained for 250 s accumulation at 0.3 V. Determination of T₄ in a synthetic serum sample demonstrated that this sensor has good selectivity and high sensitivity.     

Preparation,Characterization and Electrochemical Application of Graphene‐metallic Nanocomposites

Three different Graphene‐Metallic (Graphene‐Me) nanocomposites – Graphene‐Silver (Graphene‐Ag), Graphene‐Gold (Graphene‐Au) and Graphene‐Platinum (Graphene‐Pt) nanocomposites – were prepared and characterized. The electrochemical performances of these nanocomposites were tested by incorporating them with glassy carbon paste electrode (GCPE) and used them in biofuel cells (BFC) and as amperometric xanthine biosensor transducers. Present work contains the first application of Graphene‐Au and Graphene‐Ag nanocomposite in BFCs and also first application of these Graphene‐Me nanocomposites in xanthine biosensors. Considering BFC, power and current densities were calculated as 2.03 µW cm^?2 and 167.46 µA cm^?2 for the plain BFC, 3.39 µW cm^?2 and 182.53 µA cm^?2 for Graphene‐Ag, 4.43 µW cm^?2 and 230.15 µA cm^?2 for Grapehene‐Au and 6.23 µW cm^?2 and 295.23 µA cm^?2 for Graphene‐Pt nanocomposite included BFCs respectively. For the amperometric xanthine biosensor linear ranges were obtained in the concentration range between 5 µM and 50 µM with the RSD (n=3 for 30 µM xanthine) value of 4.28 % for plain xanthine biosensor, 3 µM and 50 µM with the RSD (n=3 for 30 µM xanthine) value of 9.37 % for Graphene‐Ag, 5 µM to 20 µM with the RSD (n=3 for 5 µM xanthine) value of 9.00 % and 30 µM to 70 µM with the RSD (n=3 for 30 µM xanthine) value of 8.80 % for Grapehene‐Au and 1 µM and 70 with the the RSD (n=3 for 30 µM xanthine) value of 2.59 % for Grapehene‐Pt based xanthine biosensors respectively.