Catechol incorporation and detection using bentonite-vanadium(V) oxide xerogels

Bentonite-vanadium(V) oxide xerogels (BV) provide interesting materials for intercalation of catechols, allowing their extraction and analytical detection, using either spectroscopic or electrochemical methods. The intercalation process is coupled with a redox reaction, generating vanadium(IV) sites responsible for characteristic intervalence transfer transitions in the visible-near infrared region. Accordingly, BV optodes have been elaborated for the determination of catechol in aqueous solution. Under similar conditions, phenol and sulphonated or carboxylated catechols react rather slowly with BV, and the analysis of catechol can be suitably performed by using kinetic methods.