Simple and feasible simultaneous determination of three phenolic pollutants on boron-doped diamond film electrode

Abstract

A simple, rapid and feasible method is developed for direct and simultaneous determination of phenol (Ph), hydroquinone (HQ) and 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) on unmodified boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrode. Results showed that the oxidative peaks of these three phenolic compounds can be completely separated on BDD electrode in acidic conditions by using electrochemical cyclic voltammetry technique. The peak potential separations are all higher than 0.35 V. Moreover, BDD electrode is extremely easy to be refreshed to obtain current values with good reproducibility, even if it is passivated by phenolic compounds with different adsorption characteristics. All the above features are on account of the outstanding electrochemical characteristics of BDD electrode, and lead to the advantage and feasibility for simultaneous determination of three phenolic compounds without any other separation operation. For each tested phenolic compound, the concentration range with linearity is in two or three orders of magnitude in the presence of other coexisting phenolic compounds with the concentrations more than 1000 times higher than that of the tested component. The present method is also shown to be promising for the determination of phenolic contaminants in the real wastewater samples. © 2007 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.