Glassy Carbon Electrode Modified with Citrate Stabilized Gold Nanoparticles for Sensitive Arsenic (III) Detection

Abstract

Abstract The electrochemical detection of As(III) was investigated on the novel citrate stabilized gold nanoparticle modified glassy carbon electrode (AuNPs/GCE) in 1 M HCl by square wave anodic stripping voltammetry. AuNPs/GCE was prepared by simply casting citrate stabilized gold nanoparticles onto the well-polished glassy carbon electrode. Gold modification was evaluated by cyclic voltammetry, while transmission electron microscopy and UV-vis Spectroscopy revealed the size and distribution of gold nanoparticles. Anodic stripping voltammetry was performed with the modified electrode in As(III) solution. Electrochemical experiments proved that AuNPS/GCE exhibited good performance for As(III) analysis, the linear range were obtained between 0.05 and 1 ppb for trace level of As(III) as well as 1 to 15 ppb, with a limit of detection of 0.025 ppb. In terms of reproducibility, the precision of the aforementioned method in %RSD was calculated at 7.78% (n = 10), and the repeatability of the proposed method was calculated to be 1.59%. The application of the method to analyze As(III) in tap water was investigated. Keywords: As (III)CitrateElectroanalysisGold nanoparticlesModified glassy carbon electrode Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (40973074) for financial support of the present study. Notes a Concentration between analyte and interferant. b Arsenic signal overlaid by Cu.