Science Journal of Analytical Chemistry

Submit a Manuscript

Publishing with us to make your research visible to the widest possible audience.

Propose a Special Issue

Building a community of authors and readers to discuss the latest research and develop new ideas.

Anodic Stripping Voltammetric Determination of Thallium at a Mercury Film/Glassy Carbon Electrode: Optimization of the Method and Application to Environmental Waters

This paper describes a procedure for the determination of thallium by differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry (DPASV) using a mercury film deposited on glassy carbon as the working electrode. The procedure has been optimized using experimental design methodology. The following results were obtained: deposition potential: -1000 mV, deposition time: 4 min, speed of the rotating disc electrode: 1000 rpm, pulse amplitude 80 mV. The response of the electrode towards thallium ions was then verified by establishing the calibration curve, which showed a good correlation coefficient of 0.9973 and the error between 5 successive determinations did not exceed 1.25%. The calculated limit of detection (LOD) is equal to 2.2 10-8 mol.L-1. A certified standard of thallium at 1 mg.L-1 is determined by the standard addition method and the recovery rate obtained is 99.14%. The remarkable electroanalytical performances of the glassy carbon/mercury thin film electrode make it amenable to employ it successfully as an electrochemical sensor for the determination of traces of thallium in environmental samples. Measurements carried out on the waters from wells and boreholes in the village of Yamtenga reveal thallium levels above the standard for some sources of water. These waters are therefore not recommended for use as drinking as drinking water.

Thallium, Mercury Film, Differential Pulse Anodic Stripping Voltammetry, Optimization, Natural Waters

Abdoulkadri Ayouba Mahamane, Boubie Guel, Paul Louis Fabre. (2022). Anodic Stripping Voltammetric Determination of Thallium at a Mercury Film/Glassy Carbon Electrode: Optimization of the Method and Application to Environmental Waters. Science Journal of Analytical Chemistry, 10(4), 74-79. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjac.20221004.12

Copyright © 2022 Authors retain the copyright of this article.
This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

1. Zhong, Q., Qi, J., Liu, J., Wang, J., Lin, K., Ouyang, Q., Zhang, X., Wei, X., Xiao, T., El-Naggar, A., & Rinklebe, J. (2022). Thallium isotopic compositions as tracers in environmental studies: A review. Environment International, 162, 107148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2022.107148
2. Çolak, H., & Mercan, H. İ. (2022). Influence of thallium doping on structural, electrical, and optical properties of ZnO nanorods for TCO applications. Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics, 33 (18), 14816–14828. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-08401-8
3. Blain R. (2022) Thallium. Handbook on the Toxicology of Metals, 795–806. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-822946-0.00028-3
4. Morales-Zarco, M. A., Osorio-Rico, L., Aschner, M., Galván-Arzate, S., & Santamaría, A. (2021). Thallium Neurotoxicity. Handbook of Neurotoxicity, 1-27.
5. Nuvolone, D., Petri, D., Aprea, M. C., Bertelloni, S., Voller, F., & Aragona, I. (2021). Thallium contamination of drinking water: Health implications in a residential cohort study in Tuscany (Italy). International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18 (8), 4058. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18084058
6. Peter, A. L. J., & Viraraghavan, T. (2005). Thallium: a review of public health and environmental concerns. Environment International, 31 (4), 493–501. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2004.09.003
7. Das, A. K., Dutta, M., Cervera, M. L., & de la Guardia, M. (2007). Determination of thallium in water samples. Microchemical Journal, Devoted to the Application of Microtechniques in All Branches of Science, 86 (1), 2–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.microc.2006.07.003
8. Saha, A. (2005). Thallium toxicity: A growing concern. Indian Journal of Industrial Medicine, 9 (2), 53. https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5278.16741
9. Mohammadi, S. Z. (2012). Flame atomic absorption spectrometric determination of trace amounts of zinc and thallium in different matrixes after solid phase extraction on modified multiwalled carbon nanotubes. American Journal of Analytical Chemistry, 03 (05), 371–377. https://doi.org/10.4236/ajac.2012.35049
10. Das, A. K., Chakraborty, R., Cervera, M. L., & de la Guardia, M. (2006). Determination of thallium in biological samples. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 385 (4), 665–670. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-006-0411-8
11. Borges, D. L. G., Welz, B., & José Curtius, A. (2007). Determination of As, Cd, Pb and Tl in coal by electrothermal vaporization inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry using slurry sampling and external calibration against aqueous standards. Mikrochimica Acta, 159 (1–2), 19–26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-006-0730-7
12. Lei, F., Ye, Z., Dong, Z., Zhang, X., & Wu, P. (2022). Thioflavine T-induced charge neutralization assembly of AuNPs for colorimetric sensing of thallium. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 370, 132437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2022.132437
13. Mane, C. P., & Anuse, M. A. (2008). Studies on liquid-liquid extraction and recovery of bismuth (III) from succinate media using 2-octylaminopyridine in chloroform. Journal of the Chinese Chemical Society, 55 (4), 807–817. https://doi.org/10.1002/jccs.200800121
14. Zhang, L., Huang, T., Liu, N., Liu, X., & Li, H. (2009). Sorption of thallium (III) ions from aqueous solutions using titanium dioxide nanoparticles. Mikrochimica Acta, 165 (1–2), 73–78. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-008-0100-8
15. Meeravali, N. N., & Jiang, S.-J. (2008). Ultra-trace speciation analysis of thallium in environmental water samples by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry after a novel sequential mixed-micelle cloud point extraction. Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, 23 (4), 555–560. https://doi.org/10.1039/B718149C
16. Farghaly, O. A. (2003). Direct and simultaneous voltammetric analysis of heavy metals in tap water samples at Assiut city: an approach to improve the analysis time for nickel and cobalt determination at mercury film electrode. Microchemical Journal, Devoted to the Application of Microtechniques in All Branches of Science, 75 (2), 119–131. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0026-265x(03)00090-0
17. Ariño, C., Banks, C. E., Bobrowski, A., Crapnell, R. D., Economou, A., Królicka, A., Pérez-Ràfols, C., Soulis, D., & Wang, J. (2022). Electrochemical stripping analysis. Nature Reviews Methods Primers, 2 (1), 1-18 https://doi.org/10.1038/s43586-022-00143-5
18. van den Berg, C. M. G. (1991). Potentials and potentialities of cathodic stripping voltammetry of trace elements in natural waters. Analytica Chimica Acta, 250, 265–276. https://doi.org/10.1016/0003-2670(91)85075-4
19. Mart, L., Nurnberg, H. W., & Valenta, P. (1980). Prevention of contamination and other accuracy risks in voltammetric trace metal analysis of natural waters: Part III. Voltammetric ultratrace analysis with a multicell system designed for clean bench working. Fresenius’ Zeitschrift fur Analytische Chemie, 300 (5), 350–362. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01154736
20. Sherigara, B. S., Shivaraj, Y., Mascarenhas, R. J., & Satpati, A. K. (2007). Simultaneous determination of lead, copper and cadmium onto mercury film supported on wax impregnated carbon paste electrode. Electrochimica Acta, 52 (9), 3137–3142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2006.09.055
21. Borrill, A. J., Reily, N. E., & Macpherson, J. V. (2019). Addressing the practicalities of anodic stripping voltammetry for heavy metal detection: a tutorial review. The Analyst, 144 (23), 6834–6849. https://doi.org/10.1039/c9an01437c
22. Hamid, H. A., Lockman, Z., Nor, N. M., Zakaria, N. D., & Razak, K. A. (2021). Sensitive detection of Pb ions by square wave anodic stripping voltammetry by using iron oxide nanoparticles decorated zinc oxide nanorods modified electrode. Materials Chemistry and Physics, 273, 125148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matchemphys.2021.125148
23. Fischer, E., & van den Berg, C. M. G. (1999). Anodic stripping voltammetry of lead and cadmium using a mercury film electrode and thiocyanate. Analytica Chimica Acta, 385 (1–3), 273–280. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0003-2670(98)00582-0
24. Ioroi, T., Nagai, T., Siroma, Z., & Yasuda, K. (2022). Effect of rotating disk electrode conditions on oxygen evolution reaction activity of Ir nanoparticle catalysts and comparison with membrane and electrode assemblies. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2022.09.059
25. Xu, K., Pérez-Ràfols, C., Marchoud, A., Cuartero, M., & Crespo, G. A. (2021). Anodic stripping voltammetry with the hanging mercury drop electrode for trace metal detection in soil samples. Chemosensors (Basel, Switzerland), 9 (5), 107. https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors9050107
26. Durai, L., & Badhulika, S. (2022). Stripping voltammetry and chemometrics assisted ultra-selective, simultaneous detection of trace amounts of heavy metal ions in aqua and blood serum samples. Sensors and Actuators Reports, 4, 100097. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snr.2022.100097
27. Karbowska, B., Rębiś, T., & Milczarek, G. (2017). Mercury-modified lignosulfonate-stabilized gold nanoparticles as an alternative material for anodic stripping voltammetry of thallium. Electroanalysis, 29 (9), 2090–2097. https://doi.org/10.1002/elan.201700090
28. Zhang, J., Shan, Y., Ma, J., Xie, L., & Du, X. (2009). Simultaneous determination of indium and thallium ions by anodic stripping voltammetry using antimony film electrode. Sensor Letters, 7 (4), 605–608. https://doi.org/10.1166/sl.2009.1117
29. Pérez-Ràfols, C., Serrano, N., Díaz-Cruz, J. M., Ariño, C., & Esteban, M. (2017). Simultaneous determination of Tl (I) and In (III) using a voltammetric sensor array. Sensors and Actuators. B, Chemical, 245, 18–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2017.01.089
30. Lochab, A., Saxena, M., Jindal, K., Tomar, M., Gupta, V., & Saxena, R. (2021). Thiol-functionalized multiwall carbon nanotubes for electrochemical sensing of thallium. Materials Chemistry and Physics, 259 (124068), 124068. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matchemphys.2020.124068
31. Munir, A., Shah, A., & Piro, B. (2018). Development of a selective electrochemical sensing platform for the simultaneous detection of Tl+, Cu2+, Hg2+, and Zn2+ ions. Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 165 (10), B399–B406. https://doi.org/10.1149/2.0441810jes
32. Zou, L., Zhang, Y., Qin, H., & Ye, B. (2009). Simultaneous determination of thallium and lead on a chemically modified electrode with Langmuir-Blodgett film of ap-tert-butylcalix [4] arene derivative. Electroanalysis, 21 (23), 2563–2568. https://doi.org/10.1002/elan.200900300