Preparation of Ni-Co Alloy Electrodes by Pulsed Electrodeposition and Its Application in Detection of Oxytetracycline

The Ni-Co alloy films were prepared on Cu substrates by pulsed electrodeposition technique using citric acid as the complexing agent. The influence of the main technical parameters, such as the concentration of CoSO4 center dot 7H(2)O, the current density, and the duty cycle on the component content in the Ni-Co alloy films, were investigated by energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). The surface morphology of Ni-Co alloy films was analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM), and the electrocatalytic activity of Ni-Co alloy films for oxytetracycline detection was investigated by the method of cyclic voltammetry. The result showed that the excellent Ni-Co alloy films with 44.33 wt% Co was obtained when the concentration of CoSO4 center dot 7H(2)O was 3 g/L, the current density was 2.5 A/dm(2), and the duty cycle was 20%. A linear relationship between the anodic peak current and the concentration of oxytetracycline from 0.01 to 0.5 mM was obtained with a limit detection as low as 0.01 mM using Ni-Co alloy films.