Introducing absorptive stripping voltammetry: wide concentration range voltammetric phenol detection.

Area of Science:

• Electrochemistry
• Analytical Chemistry

Background:

• Phenol oxidation at electrodes often suffers from self-passivation, limiting detection sensitivity and reusability.
• Existing methods like adsorptive stripping voltammetry rely on surface adsorption for analyte pre-concentration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and characterize carbon paste electrodes for enhanced phenol detection.
• To introduce a novel electroanalytical technique, absorptive stripping voltammetry, for phenol quantification.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of carbon paste electrodes for phenol detection.
• Pre-concentration of phenols from aqueous solutions into the electrode paste via absorptive uptake.
• Electrochemical quantification of accumulated phenols using voltammetry.

Main Results:

• Carbon paste electrodes effectively overcome phenol oxidation self-passivation.
• Detection ranges established for 4-phenoxyphenol (2.5–40 μM), phenol (2.5 μM–60 mM), and 4-methoxyphenol (5.0–40 μM).
• Electrodes demonstrated reusability up to 1.0 mM concentrations without surface renewal.

Conclusions:

• Carbon paste electrodes offer a robust platform for sensitive phenol detection, overcoming limitations of traditional methods.
• Absorptive stripping voltammetry, utilizing bulk phase accumulation, is a viable alternative to adsorptive stripping voltammetry.
• The developed method provides a sensitive, reusable, and efficient approach for phenol electroanalysis.