Renewable Surface Sol‐gel Derived Carbon Ceramic Electrode Modified with Copper Complex and Its Application as an Amperometric Sensor for Bromate Detection

A sol-gel technique was used for the preparation of a three dimensional carbon composite electrode modified with [Cu(bpy)2]Br2 complex. A reversible redox couple of Cu(II)/Cu(I) is observed at the electrode surface. The electrochemical behavior and stability of the modified electrode was characterized by cyclic voltammetry. The charge transfer coefficient (α) and charge transfer rate constant (Ks) for the modified electrode were determined by cyclic voltammetry, which were found to be 0.46 and 14.2 s−1, respectively. The modified electrode showed excellent catalytic activity toward bromate reduction at significantly reduced overpotentials and can be used successfully for amperometric detection of bromate. Under the optimized conditions, the calibration plots are linear in the concentration range 0.5 μM −200μM. Detection limit (signal to noise is 3) and sensitivity were found to be 0.1 μM and 20 nA / μM, respectively. These analytical parameters compare favorably with those obtained with modern analytical techniques. The modified carbon ceramic electrode doped with Cu-Complex shows a good reproducibility, a short response time (t 4 months) and especially good surface renewability by simple mechanical polishing (RSD for 6 successive polishing is 1.5%).