Application of gold nanoparticles/TiO2 modified electrode for the electrooxidative determination of catechol in tea samples

A gold nanoparticles/TiO2 composite modified Indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode has been constructed to study the electrochemical behaviour of catechol (CC) and hydroquinone (HQ) using cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). Increasing of separation of the oxidative peak potentials and peak current for CC and HQ in pH 6.0 phosphate buffer solution (PBS), make it suitable for selected determination of CC. After the optimization of the conditions, CC was determined by DPV and the linear range is from 1.0 x 10(-7) to 5.0 x 10(-4) mol L-1 with a correlation coefficient of 0.999 and limit of detection as 5.0 x 10(-8) mol L-1. Interference and stability study showed a satisfactory result. The proposed method has been applied to determine catechol in tea samples, and comparing with the chromatography the results are satisfactory. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.