A Graphene-Based Electrochemical Sensor for Rapid Determination of Phenols in Water

A glassy carbon electrode (GCE) coated with a graphene/polymer film was fabricated for rapid determination of phenols in aqueous solutions. The electrochemical behavior of different phenols at the graphene/polymer-coated GCE was also investigated. In PBS buffer solution with a pH of 6.5, hydroquinone exhibits a well-defined reduction peak at the modified GCE. Based on this, an electrochemical method for the direct determination of phenols is proposed. Investigating different parameters revealed the optimized detection conditions for the electrode are a scan rate of 50 mV/s, dosage of graphene-polyaniline of 8 μL, dosage of tyrosinase of 3 μL, and pH of 6.5. Under the optimal conditions, the reduction peak current varies linearly with the concentration of phenols, with a linear regression equation of I (10(−6)A) = −4.887 × 10(−4)C (mol/L)−5.331 × 10(−6) with a correlation coefficient of 0.9963 and limit of detection (S/N = 3) of 2.00 × 10(−4) mol/L. The electrochemical sensor is also used to detect phenols in actual samples, where it shows great promise for rapid, simple and quantitative detection of phenols.