Catalytic oxidation of ascorbic acid by some ferrocene derivative mediators at the glassy carbon electrode. Application to the voltammetric resolution of ascorbic acid and dopamine in the same sample.

Direct-current cyclic voltammetry is used to investigate the suitability of some ferrocene derivatives such as ferrocenecarboxylic acid, ferroceneacetic acid and ferrocenemethanol as mediators for ascorbic acid oxidation in aqueous solutions with low pH. The ascorbic acid coupled catalytically to three ferrocene derivatives exhibiting homogeneous second-order rate constants k(s), in the range 7.36 x 10(5) - 1.23 x 10(7). The catalytic oxidation peak current was linearly dependent on the ascorbic acid concentration and the linearity range obtained in the presence of ferrocenecarboxilic acid, having the largest second-order rate constant, was 5 x 10(-5) - 1.5 x 10(-3) M. The catalytic effect of the ferrocene derivatives on the electrochemical oxidation of ascorbic acid reduced the oxidation potential of ascorbic acid, resulting in the separation of the overlapping voltammograms of ascorbic acid and dopamine at the glassy carbon electrode in a mixture. This allowed the determination of ascorbic acid in the presence of dopamine. The calibration graph obtained by linear sweep voltammetry for ascorbic acid in the presence of dopamine of fixed concentration is linear in the range 5 x 10(-5) - 1.5 x 10(-3) M. In a similar manner, dopamine is determined in the presence of a high concentration of ascorbic acid, up to 100 times that of dopamine, using ferroceneacetic acid as the most suitable mediator for this purpose.