Electrocatalytic oxidation and simultaneous determination of catechol and hydroquinone at a novel carbon nano-fragment modified glassy carbon electrode

In this paper, the electrochemical oxidation and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) determination of catechol (CC) and hydroquinone (HQ) are studied at a novel carbon nano-fragment (CNF) modified glassy carbon electrode (CNF/GCE). The CNF modifier is prepared using the graphite cycled in lithium-ion batteries as the raw material through a ball mill process. The redox reactions of CC and HQ at the CNF/GCE are a two proton and electron process and controlled by the diffusion step. Compared to the GCE, the as-prepared CNF/GCE shows enhanced electrocatalytic activity and a peak potential difference of about 104 mV towards the oxidation of CC and HQ in a 0.1 mol L−1 acetate buffer solution (ABS, pH = 5.9), which makes it suitable for simultaneous determination of CC and HQ by DPV. Under the optimized conditions, the oxidation peak current of CC is linear over a range from 2.0 × 10−6 mol L−1 to 2.0 × 10−4 mol L−1 in the presence of 5.0 × 10−5 mol L−1 HQ with a detection limit of 1.0 × 10−7 mol L−1 (S/N = 3). Correspondingly, the oxidation peak current of HQ is linear over a range from 6.0 × 10−6 mol L−1 to 2.0 × 10−4 mol L−1 in the presence of 5.0 × 10−5 mol L−1 CC with a detection limit of 2.5 × 10−7 mol L−1 (S/N = 3). In addition, this CNF/GCE exhibits high selectivity, reproducibility and stability, showing its promising application prospect.