Fabrication of Poly (Trans-3-(3-Pyridyl)Acrylic Acid)/Multi—Walled Carbon Nanotubes Membrane for Electrochemically Simultaneously Detecting Catechol and Hydroquinone

Abstract

Herein, conductive polymer membrane with excellent performance was successfully fabricated by integrating carboxylated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and poly (trans-3-(3-pyridyl) acrylic acid) (PPAA) film. The drop-casting method was employed to coated MWCNTs on the glassy carbon electrode (GCE) surface, and PPAA was then electropolymerized onto the surface of the MWCNTs/GCE in order to form PPAA-MWCNTs membrane. This enables the verification of the excellent performances of proposed membrane by electrochemically determining catechol (CC) and hydroquinone (HQ) as the model. Cyclic voltammetry experiments showed that the proposed membrane exhibited an obvious electrocatalytic effect on CC and HQ, owing to the synergistic effect of PPAA and MWCNTs. Differential pulse voltammetry was adopted for simultaneous detection purposes, and an increased electrochemical responded to CC and HQ. A concentration increase was found in the range of 1.0 × 10−6 mol/L~1.0 × 10−4 mol/L, and it exhibited a good linear relationship with satisfactory detection limits of 3.17 × 10−7 mol/L for CC and 2.03 × 10−7 mol/L for HQ (S/N = 3). Additionally, this constructed membrane showed good reproducibility and stability. The final electrode was successfully applied to analyze CC and HQ in actual water samples, and it obtained robust recovery for CC with 95.2% and 98.5%, and for HQ with 97.0% and 97.3%. Overall, the constructed membrane can potentially be a good candidate for constructing electrochemical sensors in environmental analysis.

Keywords

• Poly(trans-3-(3-Pyridyl)acrylic acid)
• multi-walled carbon nanotubes
• conductive membrane
• catechol
• hydroquinone