Gold electrodes are widely used in electrochemistry and electroanalytical chemistry. The notable performance when used in stripping analysis of many ionic species and the extraordinary affinity of thio compounds for its surface make these electrodes very suitable for many applications. This paper reports a simple and novel way to construct gold electrodes (CDtrodes) using recordable CDs as the gold source. The nanometer thickness of the gold layer of recordable disks (50-100 nm) favors the construction of band nanoelectrodes with areas as small as 10(-6) cm2. The plane surface can be easily used for the construction of conventional-sized gold electrodes for batch or flow injection analysis or even to obtain electrodes as large as 100 cm2. The low price of commercial recordable CDs allows a "one way use". The evaluation and applicability of these electrodes in the form of nanoelectrodes, in batch and associated with flow cells, are illustrated in this paper.

The development of a new methodology for the construction of very efficient flow cells for mercury detection by potentiometric stripping analysis, employing the thin gold layer of recordable CDs as working electrode is reported. This new source of electrodes (CDtrodes) show very attractive performance, similar to that obtained with commercial gold electrodes, with superior versatility. The low cost of this new source of "gold electrodes" allows a frequent replacement of the electrode, avoiding cumbersome clean-up treatments. Various experimental parameters have been optimized to yield low detection limits (0.25 ng/mL of mercury for 5 min deposition at 0.3 V) and good precision (standard deviation of 1.9% was obtained for 15 repetitive measurements using 10 ng/mL of mercury). Standard curves were found to be linear over the range of 0.5-100 microg L(-1) of mercury. The flow cells developed were used for the quantification of mercury in oceanic and tap water.