Voltammetric determination of resorcinol on the surface of a glassy carbon electrode modified with multi-walled carbon nanotube

A multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) film coated glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was fabricated, and the electrochemical oxidation of resorcinol (RS) was studied in Britton-Robinson (BR) buffer (pH 6.0) using cyclic, square wave, and differential pulse voltammetry (CV, SWV, and DPV). The results revealed that the modified electrode shows an electrocatalytic activity toward the oxidation of RS by a marked enhancement in the current response in buffered solution. The oxidation of RS at this nano-structured film coated electrode was irreversible and diffusion-controlled. Under the optimum conditions, the anodic peak current showed a linear relation versus RS concentration in the range of 1.2 × 10−6 to 1.9 × 10−4 M with detection limits of 4.9 × 10−7 and 1.1 × 10−6 M (signal-to-noise = 3) for SWV and DPV, respectively. Moreover, the modified electrode demonstrated good reproducibility (RSD = 2.4%, n = 10) and long-term stability. This method has been applied to the determination of RS in wastewater, and the recoveries were from 93% to 104%.