Cathodic Electrochemical Detection of Nitrophenols at a Bismuth Film Electrode for Use in Flow Analysis

Abstract

The bismuth film electrode (BiFE) is presented for use in both batch voltammetric and flow injection (FI) amperometric detection of some nitrophenols (2-nitrophenol, 2-NP; 4-nitrophenol, 4-NP; 2,4-dinitrophenol, 2,4-DNP). The bismuth film was deposited ex situ (batch measurements) and in-line (FI) onto a glassy carbon substrate electrode. Batch analysis of the nitrophenols was carried out in 0.04 M Britton Robinson (BR) buffer pH 4, while for FI measurements, a carrier/electrolyte solution composed of 0.1 M BR buffer pH 4 mixed with methanol (20 þ 80, v/v%) was employed to resemble media used in preconcentration/clean-up and flow separation sample pretreatment procedures. Under batch conditions, the voltammetric behavior of the nitrophenols was examined for dependence on medium pH in the range of 2 to 10. Employing the square-wave voltammetry mode, the limits of detection were 0.4 mg L . The attractive performance of the BiFE under flow analysis conditions offers great promise with respect to its detection capability and to its use for a prolonged period of time with no need for inconvenient removal of the electrode from the system for mechanical surface treatment.

A Decade with Bismuth‐Based Electrodes in Electroanalysis

“…Even though the vast majority of practically orientated research into bismuth electrodes has focused on the determination of inorganic ions, there has also been increasing effort towards the determination of organic compounds. The analysis of organic compounds represents approximately 15% of the total research activity into BiEs and can be split into four main areas, namely (i) fundamental investigations into the analysis of model organic compounds including nitrophenols [17,32]; (ii) determination of pharmaceutical substances including aminosalicylate drugs [182], Daunomycin [48], Tetracycline [97] and Diclofenac [117]; (iii) the determination of pesticides [80,123,127,144,165]; and (iv) the determination of various compounds of biological relevance [19,84,107,111].…”

“…In this year of further expansion, the respective publication output had rapidly grown [31 -46], reflecting also the results of several newly established teams [25 -30]. Besides continuing investigations in home laboratories of the Slovenian pioneers [31,32,34], in the Czech Republic, Poland [37, 44 -46], Greece [33,35,36,38] and Italy [42], the premiere reports arrived from the U.K. [39 -41] and another locality in the U.S. (Cincinnati [43]). In a collection of sixteen publications, one could find very diverse contributions -from optimizations and validations of newly developed methods for trace metal analysis [33 -35, 44, 45], up to the first real-life application of a BiFE in biological/clinical analysis [43].…”

“…In a collection of sixteen publications, one could find very diverse contributions -from optimizations and validations of newly developed methods for trace metal analysis [33 -35, 44, 45], up to the first real-life application of a BiFE in biological/clinical analysis [43]. In addition, further contributions included the first successful attempts to detect selected organic compounds in a FIA arrangement [32], the combination of electrochemical procedures with (ultra)sonication [40,41], the first systematic studies on morphology of bismuth microlayers [37], and proposals of alternate electrode substrates for bismuth films [36,42] or further types of bismuth-based electrodes [46] (including the configuration from compact metal, the so-called "bismuth bulk electrode", BiBE [31]). …”

Sensitive Electrochemical Determination of Folic Acid Using ex–situ Prepared Bismuth Film Electrodes

“…By using of an "environmentally friendly" electrode material -bismuth (mostly as electrodeposited bismuth film as it is well known resemblance in electrochemical behavior between Bi and Hg) in electrochemical "stripping" analysis, [20,21,22] it is possible to overcome issues related to mercury based materials. Although conventional and micro bismuth film electrodes have been widely used in electrochemical analysis of various organic compounds [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] their relevance for folic acid determination has been very poorly exploited. Only Ananthi et al [38] reported determination of folic acid using glassy carbon electrode modified with an electrodeposited bismuth nanowires by square wave voltammetry.…”

Nucleation and Growth of Bismuth Electrodeposition from Alkaline Electrolyte

“…Owing to its large magnetoresistance, [1][2][3][4][5] thermoelectric efficiency 6 and interesting quantum effects, 7 Bi films possessed many applications in electrochromic devices, environmental detection, catalysis, superconductivity, thermoelectric, and piezoelectric. [8][9][10][11][12][13] In recent years, electrodeposition is the least expensive, effective, and readily adoptable method to deposit Bi films. Much of previous studies of the electrodeposition of Bi films from nitrate, perchlorate, lactate, silicate, sulfate and pyrophosphate electrolytes.…”