Electrochemical detection of hydroquinone in wastewater using polypyrrole-graphene nanocomposite-modified glassy carbon electrode

Hydroquinone is one of the phenolic compounds which is broadly utilized in industries as a raw material for processing. The presence of HQ in the wastewater can cause harmful effects on humans as well as aquatic life. There are enormous analytical methods that have been developed to detect the presence of hydroquinone even at trace levels, but among them, one of the trending methods is electrochemical, which is not only easy to operate but also gives very sensitive and selective results. In the current study, using a microwave-assisted technique, polypyrrole graphene-based nanocomposites were synthesized and then modified on a glassy carbon electrode to serve as a highly efficient replacement for the highly sensitive and selective hydroquinone (HQ) detection in real water samples. Several characterization methods, including Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy, were used to examine the produced nanocomposite. These techniques revealed the presence of nanosheet-like morphologies in sensing nanomaterials. Meanwhile, the cyclic voltammetric method was used to investigate the electrochemical behavior of the surface-modified glassy carbon electrode and set a linear concentration from 0.06 to 1.4 mM for sensing HQ under optimized conditions. The modified method showed a limit of detection and limit of quantification of 0.04 and 0.13 mM, respectively. Moreover, the present research has developed a reliable, sensitive, and fast method for the electrochemical detection of HQ in real water samples.