Abstract

We have investigated the potentiometric response of ordinary pyrolytic graphite electrodes (OPG) modified with cobalt phthalocyanine (Co-Pc) for thiols (R-SH) 2-mercaptoethanol, L-cysteine and their corresponding disulfides (R-SS-R). Stable potentials are achieved after a few seconds of additions of different amounts of thiols to aqueous solutions of pH values between 11 and 4. Plots of potential vs, log [R-SH] give straight lines for all cases with slopes ca. -0.060 V with concentrations of the thiol varying from 10(-5) up to 10(-2) M. These measurements were conducted in the presence of air or oxygen. Under nitrogen, the slopes increase to -0.14 V. The potential response of OPG/Co-Pc is independent of disulfide concentration, which shows that these modified electrodes are only sensitive to the thiol. Graphite electrodes without modification are not sensitive to the concentration of thiols in the solution and the potential response is erratic.