A wall-jet disc electrode for simultaneous and continuous on-line measurement of sodium dithionite, sulfite and indigo concentrations by means of multistep chronoamperometry

In this paper, a multistep chronoamperometric method is presented to measure continuously and simultaneously the concentrations of indigo, sodium dithionite and sulfite for application in textile dyeing processes. The method is based on the oxidation of sodium dithionite and the reduced form of indigo at a platinum disc electrode. Sodium dithionite is oxidized at a potential of 0.3 V versus Ag/AgCl and shows transport controlled steady state currents at a rotating disc electrode and a wall-jet electrode. The latter has been developed for the purpose of the application. Implementation of a wall-jet instead of a rotating disc electrode is much easier and cost-effective. Indigo is oxidized at −0.55 V versus Ag/AgCl to a virtually water insoluble product, which precipitates at the electrode surface. Indigo behaves quasi-reversibly, and is reduced at a potential of −0.9 V versus Ag/AgCl. In order to clean the electrode surface this reduction is used as a step in the multistep sequence. Finally, sulfite is oxidized at a potential of 0.8 V versus Ag/AgCl but did not give rise to well defined transport controlled limiting currents. However, determination of its concentration is still possible within error margins of 5%.