Simultaneous determination of catechol and hydroquinone based on poly (diallyldimethylammonium chloride) functionalized graphene-modified glassy carbon electrode

Abstract

Simultaneous determination of catechol (CC) and hydroquinone (HQ) were investigated by voltammetry based on glassy carbon electrode (GCE) modified by poly (diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA) functionalized graphene (PDDA-G). The modified electrode showed excellent sensitivity and selectivity properties for the two dihydroxybenzene isomers. In 0.1 mol/L phosphate buffer solution (PBS, pH 7.0), the oxidation peak potential difference between CC and HQ was 108 mV, and the peaks on the PDDA-G/GCE were three times as high as the ones on graphene-modified glass carbon electrode. Under optimized conditions, the PDDA-G/GCE showed wide linear behaviors in the range of 1 × 10−6−4 × 10−4 mol/L for CC and 1 × 10−6−5 × 10−4 mol/L for HQ, with the detection limits 2.0 × 10−7 mol/L for CC and 2.5 × 10−7 mol/L for HQ (S/N = 3) in mixture, respectively. Some kinetic parameters, such as the electron transfer number (n), charge transfer coefficient (α), and the apparent heterogeneous electron transfer rate constant (ks), were calculated. The proposed method was applied to simultaneous determine CC and HQ in real water samples of Yellow River with satisfactory results.