The electrochemical properties of PAIUCPE were investigated using potassium ferrocyanide (K4[Fe(CN)6]) as an electrochemical probe. The grams of PAIUCPE characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV) in 1.0 × 10−3 mol/L of K4[Fe(CN)6]/0.10 mol/L H2SO4 solution at a scan rate of 100 mV/s were shown in Fig. 2. There were no oxidation–reduction peaks at the bare nichrome electrode (curve a). The peak separations were found to be 102 mV and 66 mV at the IUCPE (curve b) and PAIUCPE (curve c), respectively. Moreover, the peak currents were both higher at the PAIUCPE than that of the IUCPE. It indicated that a reversible electron transfer process occurred at the PAIUCPE, and the PAIUCPE could greatly improve the electron transfer rate of electrochemical reaction and the apparent electroactive surface area of the electrode was
increased after electrochemical pretreatment. This may be due to fact that many negatively charged oxygen-containing functional groups would be produced on carbon surface during the process of pre-anodization, which exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity towards adsorption and electron transfer kinetics.