The electrochemical oxidation of pentachlorophenol and its sensitive determination at chitosan modified carbon paste electrode

We report on a novel electrochemical method to detect trace pentachlorophenol (PCP) by using a chitosan (CS) modified carbon paste electrode (CS/CPE). Compared with that at a bare carbon paste electrode (CPE), the current response was greatly improved at the CS/CPE due to the enhancement effect of CS. Under optimal working conditions, the oxidation peak current of PCP was proportional to its concentration in the range of 1.0 × 10−7 to 5.0 × 10−6 and 5.0 × 10−6 to 1.0 × 10−4 mol/L, with an extremely low detection limit of 4.0 × 10−8 mol/L. Our method was successfully used to detect the PCP concentration in vegetable samples.