Methylene blue immobilized on cellulose acetate with titanium dioxide: an application as sensor for ascorbic acid

Abstract

In this work, methylene blue dye was immobilized on the surface of cellulose acetate modified with titanium dioxide, producing a solid hybrid material designated as CA-TiO2MB. The experiment yielded an amount of 1.8 mmol g-1 of TiO2 incorporated in the cellulose acetate and an amount of 0.170 ± 0.005 mmol g-1 of methylene blue adsorbed onto CA-TiO2 surface. A carbon paste electrode of this material was used to study the electrocatalytic oxidation of ascorbic acid by cyclic voltammetric and chronoamperometric techniques. The pH of the solution had no effect on the anodic peak potential and anodic peak current when ranging from 3.0 to 7.0. The oxidation of the analyte occurred at 75 mV versus SCE in 1.0 mol L-1 KCl solution and pH 7.0. The intensity of the anodic peak current varied with the concentration of ascorbic acid from 5.0 × 10-4 mol L-1 to 4.5 × 10-3 mol L-1 and a linear correlation was observed, with a detection limit of 15 µmol L-1, quantification limit of 50 µmol L-1 and a sensitivity of 7.1 µA L mol-1. The electrode response was very fast, with an elapsed time of about 1.0 s, showing the potentiality to be utilized as an electrochemical sensor for determination of ascorbic acid in commercial samples.