Voltammetric current analysis

FIGURE 1.11. Convolution of the cyclic voltammetric current with the function I j Jnt, characteristic of transient linear and semi-infinite diffusion. Application to the correction of ohmic drop, a —, Nernstian voltammogram distorted by ohmic drop , ideal Nernstian voltammogram. b Convoluted current vs. the applied potential, E. c Correction of the potential scale, d Logarithmic analysis. 

The use of hydrodynamic modulation voltammetry was reported [155] and modified [156]. A simple treatment of the data transforms the voltammetric current-voltage waves into peak shaped curves, which gave improved resolution in the analysis of mixtures. 

ME using different CSPE-CNTs (SWCNTs and MWCNTs) to analyze a wide group of analytes of food significance, such as dietary antioxidants, water-soluble vitamins, vanilla flavors, and isofiavones involved in representative food samples, has been deeply studied [52]. Ultrafast separations at lowered oxidation potentials resulted in well defined and resolved peaks with enhanced voltammetric current when compared to those obtained from unmodified screen-printed electrodes thus making CNTs an ideal material for electrochemical sensing in food analysis. MWCNTs offered better performance as compared to SWCNTs. 

Correcting for Residual Current In any quantitative analysis the signal due to the analyte must be corrected for signals arising from other sources. The total measured current in any voltammetric experiment, itot> consists of two parts that due to the analyte s oxidation or reduction, and a background, or residual, current, ir. 

Accuracy The accuracy of a voltammetric analysis often is limited by the ability to correct for residual currents, particularly those due to charging. For analytes at the parts-per-million level, accuracies of+1-3% are easily obtained. As expected, a decrease in accuracy is experienced when analyzing samples with significantly smaller concentrations of analyte. 

Amperometry is a voltammetric method in which a constant potential is applied to the electrode and the resulting current is measured. Amperometry is most often used in the construction of chemical sensors that, as with potentiometric sensors, are used for the quantitative analysis of single analytes. One important example, for instance, is the Clark O2 electrode, which responds to the concentration of dissolved O2 in solutions such as blood and water. 

The key factor in voltammetry (and polarography) is that the applied potential is varied over the course of the measurement. The voltammogram, which is a current-applied potential curve, / = /( ), corresponds to a voltage scan over a range that induces oxidation or reduction of the analytes. This plot allows identification and measurement of the concentration of each species. Several metals can be determined. The limiting currents in the redox processes can be used for quantitative analysis this is the basis of voltammetric analysis [489]. The methods are based on the direct proportionality between the current and the concentration of the electroactive species, and exploit the ease and precision of measuring electric currents. Voltammetry is suitable for concentrations at or above ppm level. The sensitivity is often much higher than can be obtained with classical titrations. The sensitivity of voltammetric... 

The great attraction of SV lies in the effect of pre-concentration of the analyte at the electrode with, as a consequence for the stripping current, a very high ratio of faraday current to charging and impurity currents it is this high ratio which has made SV the most sensitive voltammetric analysis method to date. 

Many handbooks like the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics provide, on behalf of electrochemistry investigation, values of standard reduction potentials, listed either in alphabetical order and/or in potential order. These must be considered as potentials of completely reversible redox systems. In current analytical practice one is interested in half-wave potentials of voltammetric, mostly polarographic analysis in various specific media, also in the case of irreversible systems. Apart from data such as those recently provided by Rach and Seiler (Spurenanalyse mit Polarographischen und Voltammetrischen Methoden, Hiithig, Heidelberg, 1984), these half-wave potentials are given in the following table (Application Note N-l, EG G Princeton Applied Research, Princeton, NJ, 1980). 

If the electrochemical kinetics of the process are facile then the overall process will be dominated entirely by mass transport. Kinetic parameters such as the exchange current cannot, therefore, be obtained from such a system by analysis of the cyclic voltammetric response. Systems which satisfy this condition are normally referred to as reversible . This is slightly unfortunate... 

Determination of trace metals in seawater represents one of the most challenging tasks in chemical analysis because the parts per billion (ppb) or sub-ppb levels of analyte are very susceptible to matrix interference from alkali or alkaline-earth metals and their associated counterions. For instance, the alkali metals tend to affect the atomisation and the ionisation equilibrium process in atomic spectroscopy, and the associated counterions such as the chloride ions might be preferentially adsorbed onto the electrode surface to give some undesirable electrochemical side reactions in voltammetric analysis. Thus, most current methods for seawater analysis employ some kind of analyte preconcentration along with matrix rejection techniques. These preconcentration techniques include coprecipitation, solvent extraction, column adsorption, electrodeposition, and Donnan dialysis. 

FIGURE 1.20. Deriving the rate law of an electron transfer inlvolving free-moving reactants from the cyclic voltammetric responses, a Voltammograms recorded at 0.1, 1, 10, 100, 1000, 10,000, 100,000,1,000,000 V/s b Derivation of the surface concentrations from convolution of the current responses, c Potential-dependent rate constants (cm/s) from the combination of a and b. In this example, the outcome of the analysis is an adiabatic MHL kinetics with /, = 1.4eV, koo = 5 x IO ks = 8.4 x 10 4 cm s 1. Adapted from Figure 7 in reference 43, with permission from the American Chemical Society. 

The electrode processes on the voltammetric and the preparative electrolysis time scales may be quite different. The oxidation of enaminone 1 with the hydroxy group in the ortho position under the controlled potential electrolysis gave bichromone 2 in 68% yield (Scheme 4.) with the consumption of 2.4 F/mol [21], The RDE voltammogram of the solution of 1 in CH3CN-O.I mol/1 Et4C104 showed one wave whose current function, ii/co C, was constant with rotation rates in the range from 1(X) to 2700 rpm and showed one-electron behavior by comparison to the values of the current function with that obtained for ferrocene. The LSV analysis was undertaken in order to explain the mechanism of the reaction which involves several steps (e-c-dimerization-p-deamina-tion). The variation of Ep/2 with log v was 30.1 1.8 mV and variation of Ep/2 with logC was zero. Thus, our kinetic data obtained from LSV compare favorably with the theoretical value, 29.6 mV at 298 K, for a first order rate low [15]. This observation ruled out the dimerization of radical cation, for... 

The effect of the volume and the surface catalytic reaction is sketched in Figs. 2.80 and 2.81, respectively. Obviously, the voltammetric behavior of the mechanism (2.188) is substantially different compared to the simple catalytic reaction described in Sect. 2.4.4. In the current mechanism, the effect of the volume catalytic reaction is remarkably different to the surface catalytic reaction, revealing that SWV can discriminate between the volume and the surface follow-up chemical reactions. The extremely high maxima shown in Fig. 2.81 correspond to the exhaustive reuse of the electroactive material adsorbed on the electrode surface, as a consequence of the synchronization of the surface catalytic reaction rate, adsorption equilibria, mass transfer rate of the electroactive species, and duration of the SW potential pulses. These results clearly reveal how powerful square-wave voltammetry is for analytical purposes when a moderate adsorption is combined with a catalytic regeneration of the electroactive material. This is also illustrated by a comparative analysis of the mechanism (2.188) with the simple surface catalytic reaction (Sect. 2.5.3) and the simple catalytic reaction of a dissolved redox couple (Sect. 2.4.4), given in Fig. 2.82. 

The reduction of benzyl aryl ethers has been thoroughly investigated by voltammetric reduction, homogeneous redox catalysis,and currently, by convolution analysis. A family of ethers activated by proper substitution on the phenoxy side were chosen to provide a wide variation in the ET and bond cleavage properties of the molecule. ... 

Assuming that solid-state electrochemical processes involved in our voltammetry of microparticles analysis satisfy Tafel dependence between current and potential at the rising portion of voltammetric curves, the current can be approached by the expression... 

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