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Simultaneous determination of hydroquinone and catechol based on glassy carbon electrode modified with gold-graphene nanocomposite

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Abstract

We have synthesized a virtually monodisperse gold-graphene (Au-G) nanocomposite by a single-step chemical reduction method in aqueous dimethylformamide solution. The nanoparticles are homogenously distributed over graphene nanosheets. A glassy carbon electrode was modified with this nanocomposite and displayed high electrocatalytic activity and extraordinary electronic transport properties due to its large surface area. It enabled the simultaneous determination of hydroquinone (HQ) and catechol (CC) in acetate buffer solution of pH 4.5. Two pairs of well-defined, quasi-reversible redox peaks are obtained, one for HQ and its oxidized form, with a 43 mV separation of peak potentials (ΔEp), the other for CC and its oxidized form, with a ΔEp of 39 mV. Due to the large separation of oxidation peak potentials (102 mV), the concentrations of HQ and CC can be easily determined simultaneously. The oxidation peak currents for both HQ and CC increase linearly with the respective concentrations in the 1.0 μM to 0.1 mM concentration range, with the detection limits of 0.2 and 0.15 μM (S/N = 3), respectively. The modified electrode was successfully applied to the simultaneous determination of HQ and CC in spiked tap water, demonstrating that the Au-G nanocomposite may act as a high-performance sensing material in the selective detection of some environmental pollutants.

Au-graphene (Au-G) nanocomposites were synthesized through a single-step chemical reduction method. Nearly monodispersed Au nanoparticles were uniformly distributed over the 2D graphene nanosheets without aggregation. The glassy carbon electrode modified with Au-G nanocomposites, Au-G/GCE, shows high resolution capability in simultaneous determination of hydroquinone (HQ) and catechol (CC) in acetate buffer solutions (HAc-NaAc, pH 4.5).

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20120131110009) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21175059).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Colloid and Interface Chemistry of State Education Ministry, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, China

    Xuemei Ma, Zhaona Liu, Cuicui Qiu, Ting Chen & Houyi Ma

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  1. Xuemei Ma
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  2. Zhaona Liu
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  3. Cuicui Qiu
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  4. Ting Chen
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  5. Houyi Ma
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Correspondence to Houyi Ma.

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Ma, X., Liu, Z., Qiu, C. et al. Simultaneous determination of hydroquinone and catechol based on glassy carbon electrode modified with gold-graphene nanocomposite. Microchim Acta 180, 461–468 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-013-0949-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-013-0949-z

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