Application of Single-Use PCB Gold Disc Electrodes for "in-situ" Determination of As(III) in Natural Waters

Abstract

A simple and cheap type of disposable Au disc electrodes was developed and fabricated by PCB technology, massively used in electronic industry. This electrodes were successfully applied for "in-situ" As(III) determination in natural ground waters by the Square Wave Anodic Stripping Voltammetry (SWASV). A detection limit of 5.8 μg/L was reached at 20 s deposition time and -480 mV deposition potential. A conductometry based method was developed allowing the achievement of results reproducibility of 7.8 % to 1.5 % for the As(III) concentrations in the range from 5.8 μg/L to 250 μg/L by surface reproducibility correction of the disposable electrodes.

Determination of Trace Concentrations of Co(II) in Electrolyte for Electrowinning of Zn by Differential Pulse Voltammetry

“…The reproducibility of the Au disc electrode surface determined before to be covered by mercury was within 4.3 %, ECS Transactions, 29 (1) 409-419 (2010) determined as Relative Standard Deviation (R.S.D.) of the electroconductivity, as described by the author earlier (24).…”

“…The disposable working electrodes supports introduced by the authors earlier (24) were produced by the application of PCB technology and covered in-situ by a thick mercury film few seconds just before the application. This approach allows taking advantage from the mercury electrode surface without any risk of mercury spiel.…”

“…Since the concentration of the Hg 2+ containing solution was kept constant, the measured conductivity was proportional to the electrode surface only at a constant temperature. The correction coefficient was calculated vs. the electrode employed for the calibration curve building as described by the author earlier (24). The reproducibility of 10 -6 M Co 2+ determination according to the procedure described above was determined to be within ±3.6 % determined as R.S.D., while the reproducibility determined by the DME application was found to be 1.4% R.S.D.…”

“…The third step was choosing a simple mercury surface electrode avoiding the use of capillary which maintenance in industrial conditions is problematic. A special type of disposable mercury surface electrode was developed based on a support made by PCB technology application (24), allowing to be employed without any maintenance and easily recyclable after its use.…”

Introductory Chapter: Arsenic

“…Specific sorbents and exchange resins have been developed and applied recently for this purpose [31][32][33][34][35]. Apart from the chromatographic and non-chromatographic methods for the arsenic species separation, simple and cost-effective electrochemical methods were developed recently based on the distinct As-species electrochemical properties [36,37].…”