A novel and improved surfactant-modified Prussian Blue electrode for amperometric detection of free chlorine in water

A surfactant-modified Prussian Blue (PB) electrochemical sensor has been developed. Benzethonium was used to assist the electrodeposition of PB onto a glassy carbon electrode (GCE). The surface coverage (Gamma(0)(Fe3+)) was 7.75 x 10(-8) mol cm(-2), five times higher than the value obtained in the absence of surfactant, and the film thickness of ca. 123 nm. SEM, EDX, Raman were used to characterize the electrodes while their electrochemical analysis proved a superior performance for the surfactant modified PB film. Cyclic voltammetry and amperometry were used to study the sensor ability to detect chlorine, and the main experimental variables were optimized. Under optimized conditions, the sensor presented a sensitivity of 12 mu A ppm(-1) cm(-2), a linear range from 9 ppb to 10 ppm and a reproducibility of 4.2%. For the first time, we proved the sensor performance for real applications. Thus, chlorine was determined in tap water and the obtained concentrations validated with a standard colorimetric method. The obtained results showed that our sensor is highly performant and reliable for applications involving determinations of environmental residual chlorine. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.