Tellurium Film Electrodes Deposited on Carbon and Mesoporous Carbon Screen-printed Substrates for Anodic Stripping Voltammetric Determination of Copper

The performance of screen-printed electrodes modified insitu with tellurium film for the anodic stripping voltammetric (ASV) determination of Cu(II) is reported. It was found that two types of screen-printed substrates, namely carbon and mesoporous carbon, were optimal for this application. The selected insitu tellurium film modified electrodes were applied for the square wave ASV determination of copper at gL(-1) concentration levels. Well-defined and reproducible Cu oxidation stripping peaks were produced at a potential more negative than the anodic dissolution of tellurium. The highest sensitivity of Cu determination was achieved in 0.05M HCl containing 50gL(-1) Te(IV) after 300s of accumulation at -0.5V. Using the optimized procedure, a linear range from 2 to 35gL(-1) of Cu(II) was obtained with a detection limit of 0.5gL(-1) Cu(II) (S/N=3) for 300s of deposition time. Both sensors, carbon TeF-SPE and mesoporous carbon TeF-SPE, were successfully applied for the quantification of Cu in a certified reference surface water sample.