Affiliation: | 1. National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, 157 71 Athens, Greece Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Science, Department of Analytical Chemistry, UNESCO Laboratory of Environmental Electrochemistry, Albertov 6, 128 43 Prague 2, Czech Republic;2. Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Science, Department of Analytical Chemistry, UNESCO Laboratory of Environmental Electrochemistry, Albertov 6, 128 43 Prague 2, Czech Republic;3. University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, Department of Solid State Chemistry, Technicka 5, 166 28 Prague 6, Czech Republic;4. University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, Department of Metals and Corrosion Engineering, Technicka 5, Prague 6, 166 28 Czech Republic;5. National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, 157 71 Athens, Greece |
Abstract: | Nitrophenols are important environmental pollutants and their monitoring is important because of their genotoxic and ecotoxic properties. Easy electrochemical reduction of nitro groups can be used for their voltammetric determination using mercury based electrodes. However, requirements of green analytical chemistry prompted us to investigate a novel type of silver porous electrode (AgPE) prepared by powder metallurgy compatible with both “green” and “white” analytical chemistry requirements. In this paper, AgPE was for the first time successfully used for differential pulse voltammetric determination of micromolar concentrations of 2-nitrophenol (NP), 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP), and 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP) in aqueous media. The main advantage of the novel method is the possibility to use small sample volume (down to 25 μL) and to work in the presence of oxygen when using supporting electrolyte of pH 3. This advantage partially compensates the fact that the obtained sensitivity and limit of detection are not better than with the previously investigated electrodes. |