Carbon nanotube-modified glassy carbon electrode for adsorptive stripping voltammetric detection of ultratrace levels of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene

Abstract

Glassy carbon electrodes modified with multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) have been shown extremely useful for highly sensitive adsorptive stripping voltammetric measurements of the 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) explosive down to the sub-μg/l level. Operational parameters have been optimized and the stripping voltammetric performance has been studied using linear sweep scans. The adsorptive stripping response is highly linear over the 100–1000 μg/l TNT range examined (2 min deposition), with a detection limit of 0.6 μg/l (10 min deposition) and good precision (RSD=3.6%, n=16). These findings open the door for a widespread use of CNT-modified electrodes in adsorptive stripping voltammetry (AdSV) of important compounds that do not exhibit surface-active properties at conventional electrodes and for using stripping voltammetry for investigating the interactions of electroactive organic compounds with CNT.