A sensor based on the carbon nanotubes-ionic liquid composite for simultaneous determination of hydroquinone and catechol

Abstract MWNTs-IL-Gel/GCE, a glassy carbon electrode modified with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) and ionic liquids (IL), was developed to serve as a sensor for simultaneous determination of Hydroquinone (HQ) and catechol (CC) in this paper. The modified GCE showed two well-defined redox waves for HQ and CC in both CV and DPV with a peak potential separation of ca. 0.1 V, which was large enough for simultaneous detection. The results revealed that the oxidation of HQ and CC with the enhancement of the redox peak current and the decrease of the peak-to-peak separation exhibit excellent electrocatalytic behaviors. A high sensitivity of 1.8 × 10 −7  M with detection limits of 6.7 × 10 −8  M and 6.0 × 10 −8  M (S/N = 3) for HQ and CC were obtained. Moreover, the constants of apparent electron transfer rate of HQ and CC at MWNTs-IL-Gel/GCE were calculated as 7.402 s −1 and 8.179 s −1 , respectively, and the adsorption quantity of HQ and CC was 1.408 × 10 −6  mol cm −2 with chronocoulometry. The developed sensor can be applied to determinate directly of HQ and CC in aqueous solution.