Preparation of a carbon ceramic electrode modified by 4-(2-pyridylazo)-resorcinol for determination of trace amounts of silver

A 4-(2-pyridylazo)-resorcinol (PAR)-modified carbon ceramic electrode (CCE) prepared by the sol-gel technique has been reported for the first time in this paper. By immersing the CCE in aqueous solution of PAR (0.001 mol L⁻¹), after a short period of time, a thin film of PAR was rapidly formed on the surface of the electrode due to its strong adsorption properties. A differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetric (DPASV) method was developed for determination of Ag(I) at the modified carbon ceramic electrode. The analysis procedure consisted of an open circuit accumulation step in a sample solution which was continuously stirred for 12 min. This was followed by replacing the medium with a clean solution where the accumulated Ag(I) was reduced for 15 s in −0.6 V. Then, the potential was scanned from −0.2 to +0.2 V to obtain the voltammetric peak. The detection limit of silver(I) was 0.123 μg L⁻¹, and for seven successive determinations of 10, 100 and 200 μg L⁻¹ Ag(I), the relative standard deviations were 2.1, 1.4 and 1.03%, respectively. The calibration curve was linear for 0.5-300 μg L⁻¹ silver(I). The procedure was applied to determine silver(I) in X-ray photographic films and super-alloy samples.