From Electrode Surface Fouling to Sensitive Electroanalytical Determination of Phenols

The present investigation of phenol and chlorophenols is conducted on the surface of glassy carbon by cyclic and square wave stripping voltammetry, and by Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy. The surface fouling is accompanied by the appearance of reversible peaks at lower potential range (+0.1 to+0.4 V), that grew up with CV‐cycling and attributed to the electro‐redox reactions of formed polymer film via electropolymerization. The electroanalytical monitoring of formed polymer oxidation peaks improved both sensitivity and detection limit by 35 and 10 times, respectively. The FT‐IR supported semiempirical prediction attributes the electropolymerization to the formation of ortho‐para and/or ortho‐meta CC coupled‐system.