Author(s)

A. Iacob, F. Manea, J. Schoonman, N. Vaszilcsin

Abstract

This study aimed to develop the detection protocol for the quantitative determination of salicylic acid (SA) in water. A carbon nanotubes-epoxy composite (CNTE) electrode was tested for the development of the SA detection protocol. The electrochemical behaviour of SA on a CNTE electrode has been studied using the cyclic voltammetry (CV) technique. Also, the study of pH effect by CV showed that no significant effect was found. Differential-pulsed voltammetry (DPV) and square-wave voltammetry (SWV) techniques were employed for the optimization of the detection protocol. The optimized SWV technique application assumes the step potential of 0.005 V, the modulation amplitude of 0.05 V and the frequency of 50 Hz. In order to use this detection protocol for the in-field detection application, the possibility of using this composite electrode in real surface water without adding the supporting electrolyte has been tested. The same electroanalytical parameters for SA detection in real surface water and tap water were achieved without any interference, which denotes the microelectrode array behaviour of the composite electrode. This behaviour confers a great potential of this composite electrode for in-field direct detection of salicylic acid and also, for the indirect detection of acetylsalicylic acid from surface water.

Keywords

salicylic acid, carbon nanotubes-epoxy composite electrodes, voltammetric detection, in-field detection, water monitoring