Voltammetric simultaneous determination of catechol and hydroquinone using a glassy carbon electrode modified with a ternary hybrid material composed of reduced graphene oxide, magnetite nanoparticles and gold nanoparticles.

An electrochemical sensor is described for the simultaneous determination of the pollutants catechol (CC) and hydroquinone (HQ). A glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was modified with reduced graphene oxide, Fe3O4 and gold nanoparticles and then showed a pair of well-defined voltammetric peaks for CC and HQ. Its oxidation peak potentials (located at 0.21 and 0.10 V vs. Ag/AgCl) are well separated, and this makes it suitable for simultaneous determination of the two isomers. Under optimal conditions, the oxidation peak currents of CC and HQ increase linearly in the 0.05-550 μM and 0.1-500 μM concentration ranges, even in the presence of 0.1 mM of the respective other isomer. The detection limits are 0.02 and 0.17 μM (at S/N = 3), respectively. The modified GCE exhibits good selectivity and recovery when applied for the analysis of spiked wastewater. Graphical abstract Ternary hybrid nanomaterials of rGO-Fe3O4-Au was developed for simultaneous electrochemical determination of catechol (CC) and hydroquinone (HQ).