Determination of thiol content in fossil fuel by cyclic voltammetry using in situ Bismuth film electrode

A fast and environment-friendly strategy for the direct determination of thiol in fossil fuel by cyclic voltammetry (CV) method using an in situ Bismuth film electrode (BiFE) in an acetic acid-acetate/methanol electrolyte is reported. An extra anodic peak in the CV curve appears except for the peak due to the dissolution of Bi film. The intensity of the extra anodic peak at −0.45 V is proportional (R2 ⩾ 0.9990) to the thiol concentration in the electrolyte over the range of 0.10-1.00 μg mL−1 with the sensitivity of 121.35 μA μg−1 mL. The proposed method has been successfully applied to determination of thiol in fuel samples with satisfactory recoveries 100.60-110.00%.171