Electrodeposited nano-scale islands of ruthenium oxide as a bifunctional electrocatalyst for simultaneous catalytic oxidation of hydrazine and hydroxylamine

For the first time, an electrodeposited nano-scale islands of ruthenium oxide (ruthenium oxide nanoparticles), as an excellent bifunctional electrocatalyst, was successfully used for hydrazine and hydroxylamine electrocatalytic oxidation. The results show that, at the present bifunctional modified electrode, two different redox couples of ruthenium oxides serve as electrocatalysts for simultaneous electrocatalytic oxidation of hydrazine and hydroxylamine. At the modified electrode surface, the peaks of differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) for hydrazine and hydroxylamine oxidation were clearly separated from each other when they co-exited in solution. Thus, it was possible to simultaneously determine hydrazine and hydroxylamine in the samples at a ruthenium oxide nanoparticles modified glassy carbon electrode (RuON-GCE). Linear calibration curves were obtained for 2.0–268.3 μM and 268.3–417.3 μM of hydrazine and for 4.0–33.8 μM and 33.8–78.3 μM of hydroxylamine at the modified electrode surface using an amperometric method. The amperometric method also exhibited the detection limits of 0.15 μM and 0.45 μM for hydrazine and hydroxylamine respectively. RuON-GCE was satisfactorily used for determination of spiked hydrazine in two water samples. Moreover, the studied bifunctional modified electrode exhibited high sensitivity, good repeatability, wide linear range and long-term stability.