Signals ratio method combined with wavelet transform: application to resolution of overlapped electrochemical signals

Abstract

A signals ratio method combined with wavelet transform was proposed for the resolution of a weak voltammetric signal overlapped by other components. The signals ratio method usually suffers from interference from noise and baseline contained in the original signals because these factors cause distortion of the signals ratio. The multiresolution capability of the wavelet transform method was exploited here to simultaneously remove or reduce the noise and background. As a result, a deformation-free signals ratio with good signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was obtained even for very noisy signals. The properties of the proposed method were compared to other resolution methods. It was demonstrated that the combined signals ratio wavelet transform method was particularly applicable to resolve a minor component in the presence of large amount of other components, suggesting that it can provide improved detection limits and quantified results for minor components. The method was employed for the voltammetric determination of residual chlorine in the presence of N,N-diethyl-p-phenylenediamine (DPD).