Electrocatalytic oxidation of quinine sulfate at a multiwall carbon nanotubes-ionic liquid modified glassy carbon electrode and its electrochemical determination

Abstract

The electrocatalytic oxidation of quinine sulfate (QS) was investigated at a glassy carbon electrode, modified by a gel containing multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and room-temperature ionic liquid of 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophate (BMIMPF6) in 0.10 M of phosphate buffer solution (PBS, pH 6.8). It was found that an irreversible anodic oxidation peak of QS with Epa as 0.99 V appeared at MWCNTs-RTIL/glassy carbon electrode (GCE). The electrode reaction process was a diffusion-controlled one and the electrochemical oxidation involved two electrons transferring and two protons participation. Furthermore, the charge-transfer coefficient (α), diffusion coefficient (D), and electrode reaction rate constant (kf) of QS were found to be 0.87, 7.89 × 10−3 cm2⋅s−1 and 3.43 × 10−2 s−1, respectively. Under optimized conditions, linear calibration curves were obtained over the QS concentration range 3.0 × 10−6 to 1.0 × 10−4 M by square wave voltammetry, and the detection limit was found to be 0.44 μM based on the signal-to-noise ratio of 3. In addition, the novel MWCNTs-RTIL/GCE was characterized by the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and the proposed method has been successfully applied in the electrochemical quantitative determination of quinine content in commercial injection samples and the determination results could meet the requirement.