Influence of micelles on the electrochemical behaviors of catechol and hydroquinone and their simultaneous determination.

A simple and highly selective electrochemical method for the simultaneous determination of CAT and HQ at a glassy carbon electrode in micellar solutions has been developed. The electrochemical behaviors of CAT and HQ in aqueous CPB and SDBS micellar solutions have been studied by cyclic voltammetry. The oxidation peak potentials shift negatively, the reduction peak potentials shift positively, and the peak currents increase in the presence of CPB for both CAT and HQ. However, the oxidation peak potentials shift positively, the reduction peak potentials shift negatively, and the peak currents decrease in the presence of SDBS for both CAT and HQ. The electrochemical kinetic parameters for CAT and HQ in aqueous CPB and SDBS micellar solutions were also determined by chronocoulometry (CC) and chronoamperometry (CA). The cyclic and pulse differential voltammetric behaviors of the system consisting of CAT coexisting with HQ were also investigated in this work. It was found that the oxidation peak potential waves of CAT and HQ were separated by 100 mV in the presence of CPB in 0.10 M PBS (pH 6.8). Therefore, CAT and HQ can be determined simultaneously in such a system. This simple method was applied to the simultaneous determination of HQ and CAT in a household tap water sample and it exhibited high selectivity.