Simultaneous determination of dihydroxybenzene isomers based on gold dendritic/pEDOT electrochemical sensor

Abstract

Due to the low rate of degradation and high toxicity of dihydroxybenzene isomers, the development of new and robust sensors for the simultaneous determination of them have received much attention. In this work, a novel electrochemical sensor was fabricated by modifying dendritic gold nanostructures and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) on glassy carbon electrode. The sensor was characterized by scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction, and electrochemical techniques. The results showed that the prepared sensor possessed dendritic structure with large surface area and good conductivity, which endowed the sensor with high sensitivity for the detection of dihydroxybenzene isomers. Moreover, the sensor can effectively distinguish hydroquinone and catechol, which enabled the sensor to simultaneously detect isomers without interference to each other. Quantitative analysis showed that the sensor has wide linear ranges and low limit of detection for dihydroxybenzene isomers. The application of the fabricated sensor also demonstrated in determining dihydroxybenzene isomers in cosmetic samples with satisfactory results.