Determination of chitosan by cathodic stripping voltammetry

A sensitive method for the determination of chitosan (CTS) by cathodic stripping voltammetry is presented. The method exploits a pair of oxidation-reduction peaks of CTS at -0.62 V (vs. SCE) and -0.54 V (vs. SCE), and an enhancement of the peak current of CTS observed in a 0.05 mol 1(-1) potassium hydrogenphthalate buffer solution (pH 2.5). The peak current is linear with the concentration of CTS from 5.0 x 10(-7) to 1.5 x 10(-5) g ml(-1), and the detection limit is 1.0 x 10(-7) g ml(-1). We studied the characteristics and the mechanism of the electrode reaction, which proved that this process was diffusion controlled. This method was applied to determine the content of CTS in real samples with satisfactory results.