Adsorptive stripping voltammetric determination of hydroquinone using an electrochemically pretreated glassy carbon electrode

A simple and efficient adsorptive stripping voltammetric (AdSV) method was developed for the determination of hydroquinone at an electrochemically pretreated glassy carbon (GC) electrode in waste water. Various parameters such as solvent system, accumulation potential, accumulation time and scan rate were optimized. The electrochemically pretreated GC electrode showed good response towards hydroquinone determination by using AdSV. Under the optimized conditions the peak current showed good linear relationship with the hydroquinone concentration in the range of 0.5-4.0 mg L/sup -1/ and 5-30 mg L/sup -1/. The 60/40 methanol/water composition was found to be the best solvent system and 0.05 mol L/sup -1/ H/sub 2/SO/sub 4/ was found as useful supporting electrolyte concentration. The accumulation time was 60 s and the detection limit was 50 micro g L/sup -1/. The developed method was successfully applied for the determination of hydroquinone in polymeric industrial discharge samples waste photographic developer solution and cream sample without any significant effect of surface fouling. (author)