Electrochemical sensing of thiodiglycol,the main hydrolysis product of sulfur mustard,by using an electrode composed of an ionic liquid,graphene nanosheets and silver nanoparticles

The authors describe a method for amperometric determination of thiodiglycol (TDG), the main hydrolysis product of sulfur mustard. The electrode consists of a mixture of graphene nanosheets, silver nanoparticles and the ionic liquid octylpyridinium hexafluorophosphate. Electrochemical oxidation of TDG was performed by cyclic voltammetry at pH 4 and revealed a pair of well-defined redox peaks at potentials of 0.43 and 0.19 V (vs. Ag/AgCl). Amperometric detection was accomplished over a dynamic range that is linear in the 10–3700 μM concentration range. The detection limit (at an S/N of 3) is 6 μM. The electrode was applied to the determination of TDG in (spiked) waste water and gave recoveries that ranged from 98.2 to 103.3 %.

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Graphical abstract The article describes an amperometric sensor for the determination of thiodiglycol, the main hydrolysis product of sulfur mustard. The electrode was constructed by using graphene nanosheets, silver nanoparticles and an ionic liquid electrode, and it was successfully applied to the determination of thiodiglycol in (spiked) waste water samples.