Use of a copper electrode in alkaline medium as an amperometric sensor for sulphite in a flow-through configuration

A flow injection analysis (FIA) method has been developed for the determination of sulphite in beverages. The method is based on the amperometric detection (0.60 V vs Ag/AgCl (sat. NaCl)) of the analyte at a copper surface in an alkaline medium (1 M NaOH solution) with a manifold that incorporates flow extraction of sulphite as SO2 through a PTFE membrane. Under optimal experimental conditions the peak current response increases linearly with sulphite concentration over the range from 1.0 to 5.0 mM. The repeatability of the electrode response in the FIA configuration was evaluated as 4% (n =20), the limit of detection of the method was 0.04 mM (S/N =3) and the analytical frequency was 50 h(-1). Since ethanol is also electroactive and permeates through the PTFE membrane, a strategy involving in a first step measurements of only ethanol by manipulating the pH of the donor stream was employed for wine samples. Then, both ethanol and sulphite were measured at the copper electrode at 0.40 V vs Ag/AgCl (sat. NaCl) and the sulphite concentration was determined by difference. Results for 3 different beverage samples (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) showed excellent agreement with the ones obtained by using a recommended procedure for sulphite analysis.