Electrochemical determination of boron using the signal suppression of mannitol on a gold nanoparticle coated p-Aminothiophenol polymer electrode

Abstract

In this study, a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) modified with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and coated with electropolymerized p-aminothiophenol (p-ATP) was used as a modified electrode (GC/AuNPs/PATP electrode) for the indirect electrochemical determination of boron (B) using boric acid-mannitol complexation. The developed electrode showed good electroactivity for B determination. Firstly the current intensity of mannitol was measured, then B (as H3BO3) was added to the medium and the unreacted mannitol was measured. The decrement in current intensity was recorded against B concentration to build linear calibration curves within the range of 5-50 mg L-1 of B using square wave voltammetry (SWV), and the oxidation peak potential of mannitol was observed at 0.97 V. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were 1.43 mg L-1 and 4.77 mg L-1, respectively. Boron (5 mg L-1) was determined with quantitative recovery in the presence of 100fold concentration (except 5-fold for Fe3+) levels of the potentially interferent ions (Cl-, SO42- , HCO3- , CO32- , NO32-, PO43- , NH4+, Cu2+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Na+, K+, Fe3+) in water using the proposed SWV method. Fe3+ and Cu2+ interferences could be overcome with cation exchange resin removal. Additionally, boron was determined in synthetic and real seawater samples. The proposed SWV method was statistically validated against the spectrophotometric carmine method using seawater, antibacterial hand sanitizer gel and boron/potassium nitrate (BPN) pyrotechnic formulation.