Voltammetric Determination of Molecules of Biological, Environmental, and Pharmaceutical Importance

Abstract

Voltammetric techniques of analysis, i.e., those based on the measurement of current resulting from an oxidation or reduction at an electrode surface following the application of a potential difference to an electrochemical cell,1have assumed an important place in the armory of analytical techniques for the identification and determination of trace concentrations (i.e., 102 to 10-4 ppm) of many organic, organometallic, and inorganic molecules of environmental significance. Techniques such as normal and differential pulse polarography (NPP and DPP), anodic and cathodic stripping voltammetry (ASV and CSV), adsorptive stripping voltammetry and electrochemical detection (ED) coupled with flow injection analysis (FIA - ED), ion chromatography (IC -ED), and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC - ED) are particularly notable in this respect. Organic and organometallic molecules of environmental importance as pollutants, drugs of abuse, food additives and contaminants, agrochemicals, etc., as they are contained in a variety of complex biological matrices such as air, plasma, tissue, and soil, can be determined by these voltammetric techniques at trace concentrations usually after the application of sample pretreatment procedures and certain separation techniques.