Electrochemical Detection of Dihydroxybenzene Isomers at a Pencil Graphite Based Electrode

Md Muzahedul I Khan; Mohammad A Yousuf; Parbhej Ahamed; Mohammad Alauddin; Nusrat T Tonu

doi:10.1021/acsomega.2c03651

Electrochemical Detection of Dihydroxybenzene Isomers at a Pencil Graphite Based Electrode

ACS Omega. 2022 Aug 11;7(33):29391-29405. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.2c03651. eCollection 2022 Aug 23.

Authors

Md Muzahedul I Khan¹, Mohammad A Yousuf¹, Parbhej Ahamed¹, Mohammad Alauddin², Nusrat T Tonu^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Khulna University of Engineering and Technology, Khulna 9203, Bangladesh.
² Department of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, University of Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh.
³ Chemistry Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna 9208, Bangladesh.

Abstract

In this work, an HB pencil electrode (HBPE) was electrochemically modified by amino acids (AAs) glycine (GLY) and aspartic acid (ASA) and designated as GLY-HB and ASA-HB electrodes. They were used in the detection of dihydroxybenzene isomers (DHBIs) such as hydroquinone (HQ), catechol (CC), and resorcinol (RS), by cyclic voltammetry (CV), and by differential pulse voltammetry. HBPE was characterized by scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. These three electrodes showed a linear relationship of current with concentration of DHBIs, and the electrochemical processes were diffusion controlled in all cases. In simultaneous detection, the limit of detection, based on signal-to-noise ratio (S/N = 3), for HQ, CC, and RS was 12.473, 16.132, and 25.25 μM, respectively, at bare HBPE; 5.498, 7.119, and 14.794 μM, respectively, at GLY-HB; and 22.459, 25.478, and 38.303 μM, respectively, at ASA-HB. The sensitivity for HQ, CC, and RS was 470.481, 363.781, and 232.416 μA/mM/cm², respectively, at bare HBPE; 364.785, 282.712, and 135.560 μA/mM/cm², respectively, at GLY-HB; and 374.483, 330.108, and 219.574, respectively, at ASA-HB. The interference studies clarified the suitability and reliability of the electrodes for the detection of HQ, CC, and RS in an environmental system. Real sample analysis was done using tap water, and the proposed electrodes expressed recovery with high reproducibility. Meanwhile, these three electrodes have excellent sensitivity and selectivity, which can be used as a promising technique for the detection of DHBIs simultaneously.