Anodic stripping voltammetric determination of zinc at a 3-D printed carbon nanofiber-graphite-polystyrene electrode using a carbon pseudo-reference electrode

The application of a novel fully 3-D printed carbon nanofiber-graphite-polystyrene electrode has been investigated for the trace determination of Zn2+ by differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry. The possibility of utilising a carbon pseudo-reference electrode was found to be successful. The effect of accumulation potential and time were investigated and optimised. Using an accumulation potential of −2.9 V (vs. C) and an accumulation time of 75 s a single sharp anodic stripping peak was recorded exhibiting a linear response from 12.7 μg/L to 450 μg/L. The theoretical detection limit (3σ) was calculated as 8.6 μg/L. Using the optimised conditions a mean recovery of 97.8%, (%CV = 2.0%, n = 5) for a tap water sample fortified at 0.990 μg/mL was obtained indicating the method holds promise for the determination of Zn2+ in such samples.