Electroreduction of chloramines through novel electrode materials

Novel electrode materials have been developed and applied to the determination of chloramines by amperometric methods. In particular, a thin layer of a conducting polymer, namely poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) has been tested for the first time in the presence of chloramines. Significant improvements in the performance of the modified electrodes are obtained by using composite materials based on differently encapsulated Au nanoparticles and PEDOT. The resulting electrode system exhibits repeatability and reproducibility of the voltammetric responses, as well as low limit of detection and high sensitivity in the determination of monochloramine, as testified by the cyclic voltammetric curves and the calibration plots obtained by a rotating disk electrode. © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.