Based on the excellent electrochemical properties of the glassy carbon/antimony system, a simple method was developed for rapid and reliable determination of ultra-trace Sb(V) by square-wave anodic stripping voltammetry
We have reported a novel method that determines sub-ppt concentration of Sb(V) using an unmodified glassy carbon electrode in the presence of dissolved oxygen under mildly conditions. It has a variety of merits such as the following: (1) submonolayer deposition of antimony on GCE was obtained, which is the first report of monolayer deposition on carbon material electrodes; (2) the detection was performed in pH 4 acetate buffer using unmodified GCE electrodes with a deposition potential of −0.9 V. Neither harsh acidic solution nor chemical reducing agents were necessary. Moreover, more positive deposition potential effectively avoids the formation of hydrogen bubbles and codeposition with other metals during the deposition; these attractive characteristic would be application-specific; (3) detection limit for Sb (V) is the lowest reported for an electroanalytical method; It also compares favorably with most spectroscopic and ICP-MS techniques while being a relatively cheap and simple method to implement. Moreover, the high sensitivity of monolayer deposition is not restricted to the antimony on GCE.