Electrochemical determination of bisphenol A using a boron-doped diamond electrode

An electrochemical method was developed for the determination of bisphenol A (BPA) at an unmodified boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrode using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). The sensitivity of the DPV measurements was significantly improved by using a predominantly hydrogen-terminated BDD electrode obtained by a cathodic pretreatment. A highly linear analytical curve was obtained for BPA determination in the range of 0.44-5.2 mu mol L-1, with quantification and detection limits of 0.71 mu mol L-1 and 0.21 mu mol L-1, respectively. After assuring that the results obtained with the developed DPV method did not change in the presence of possible interferents, the method was successfully applied to monitor the concentration of BPA as it was electrooxidized in a flow reactor with an Nb/BDD anode. As far as it could be verified, the proposed electroanalytical method is the first one based on the use of an unmodified electrode. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.