Electrochemical
determination of phosphate in aqueous solutions
attracts considerable interests in both biological and environmental
fields. Because of the electrochemically inactive nature of phosphate,
direct electrochemical detection of phosphate is still a highly challenging
task. Herein, we reported a direct electrochemical approach for the
determination of phosphate based on the oxidation of coordinated OH
during the phase transition of calcium phosphates (CaPs). The mixture
of amorphous CaPs and octacalcium phosphate (Ca8(HPO4)2(PO4)4·5H2O), which acts as the starting material for hydroxyapatite (Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2), was self-assembled
on a Nafion-modified glassy carbon electrode. The as-prepared electrode
(CaPs/Nafion) showed a distinct oxidation peak at 1.0 V versus Ag/AgCl
in phosphate solution. The peak heights were directly proportional
to the concentration of phosphate from 0.1 to 10 μM in the presence
of 1 mM Ca2+. After comprehensive characterization of the
CaPs/Nafion electrode, it was understood that phosphate ions as a
proton acceptor could stimulate the generation of coordinated OH from
coordinated water (H2O) in CaP. The addition of Ca2+ could magnify the coordinated H2O source because
of its hydration to H2O. The CaPs/Nafion electrode also
displayed good selectivity as the electrochemical oxidization response
was not affected by up to 10 μM of potentially competitive species
like CO3
2–, NO3
–, CH3COO–, SO4
2–, and Cl–. The results obtained in this work not
only provided a new method for direct detection of phosphate in aqueous
solution but also suggested that Ca2+ could be a promoter
for electrochemical oxygen generation.