Simultaneous Electrochemical Determination of Hydroquinone and Bisphenol A using a Carbon Paste Electrode Modified with Silver Nanoparticles

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, a rapid and sensitive modified electrode for the simultaneous determination of hydroquinone (HQ) and bisphenol A (BPA) is proposed. The simultaneous determination of these two compounds is extremely important since they can coexist in the same sample and are very harmful to plants, animals and the environment in general. A carbon paste electrode (CPE) was modified with silver nanoparticles (nAg) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). The PVP was used as a reducing and stabilizing agent of nAg from silver nitrate in aqueous media. The nAg‐PVP composite obtained was characterized by transmission electron microscopy and UV‐vis spectroscopy. The electrochemical behavior of HQ and BPA at the nAg‐PVP/CPE was investigated in 0.1 mol L −1 B−R buffer (pH 6.0) using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and square wave voltammetry (SWV). The results indicate that the electrochemical responses are improved significantly with the use of the modified electrode. The calibration curves obtained by SWV, under the optimized conditions, showed linear ranges of 0.09–2.00 μmol L −1 for HQ (limit of detection 0.088 μmol L −1 ) and 0.04–1.00 μmol L −1 for BPA (limit of detection 0.025 μmol L −1 ). The modified electrode was successfully applied in the analysis of water samples and the results were comparable to those obtained using UV‐vis spectroscopy.