Development of an Electrochemical Sensor for the Determination of Amaranth: a Synthetic Dye in Soft Drinks

Abstract

The voltammetric behaviour of synthetic food colourant, amaranth, was studied using a multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) thin film-modified gold electrode in 0.1 M acetate buffer solution of pH 5.0. A well-defined oxidation peak was obtained for amaranth at 0.792 V with the modified electrode. The diffusion controlled oxidation of amaranth at the modified electrode can be attributed to the electrocatalytic nature of MWCNT, since the bare electrode has not produced an electrochemical signal under the same experimental conditions. The operational parameters such as supporting electrolyte, pH of the solution and amount of MWCNT–Nafion suspension were optimised. Under optimum conditions, the oxidation peak current varies linearly with concentration in the range from 1.0 × 10−5 M to 1.0 × 10−6 M with a limit of detection at 6.8 × 10−8 M. The developed sensor has good sensitivity and selectivity towards oxidation of amaranth. The sensor was successfully employed for the determination of amaranth in three different samples of soft drinks, and the results were in good agreement with the standard spectrophotometric method.