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Electrochemical Behavior and Sensitive Methods of the Voltammetric Determination of Food Azo Dyes Amaranth and Allura Red AC on Amalgam Electrodes

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Abstract

The novel and highly sensitive methods for individual determination of two food azo dyes Amaranth (AM, E 123) and Allura Red AC (AR, E 129) in the commercial beverages were successfully developed on two types of silver solid amalgam electrodes, namely mercury meniscus modified (m-AgSAE) and liquid mercury free polished (p-AgSAE) amalgam electrodes, using differential pulse adsorptive stripping voltammetry (DP-AdSV) and direct current adsorptive stripping voltammetry (DC-AdSV) for the first time. In addition, the reduction processes of AM and AR on amalgam electrodes were compared with the processes on hanging mercury drop electrode. The influence of pH, accumulation potential, and accumulation time on the signal enhancement of AM and AR were investigated. The number of electrons and the number of protons participating in the rate-determining step of the reduction process for azo dyes were calculated. Due to the significantly increasing reduction peak currents of AM and AR on m-AgSAE and p-AgSAE caused by their adsorption at the electrode surface, the amalgam electrodes exhibit the wide linear ranges and good sensitivity to the determination of AM and AR. For example, the limits of detection were found to be 2.1 × 10−9 mol L−1 for AM and 3.4 × 10−9 mol L−1 for AR on m-AgSAE using DC-AdSV. Moreover, the amalgam electrodes showed good repeatability (RSD lower than 5.0% for 5 × 10−8 mol L−1 of tested azo dyes) and stability and it was confirmed that these electrodes are useful tools to azo dye monitoring in a food safety control field.

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Funding

This research was financially supported by Visegrad Fund. BJ and JB would like to thank the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (Project 17-03868S).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Chemistry, Department of Analytical Chemistry, Lviv National University of Ivan Franko, Kyryl and Mefodij 6, Lviv, 79005, Ukraine

    Sofiia Tvorynska & Liliya Dubenska

  2. J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Dolejskova 3, 182 23, Prague8, Czech Republic

    Sofiia Tvorynska & Bohdan Josypčuk

  3. Faculty of Science, Department of Analytical Chemistry, UNESCO Laboratory of Environmental Electrochemistry, Charles University in Prague, Hlavova 2030/8, 128 43, Prague 2, Czech Republic

    Sofiia Tvorynska & Jiří Barek

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  1. Sofiia Tvorynska
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Correspondence to Sofiia Tvorynska.

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Sofiia Tvorynska declares that she has no conflict of interest. Bohdan Josypčuk declares that he has no conflict of interest. Jiří Barek declares that he has no conflict of interest. Liliya Dubenska declares that she has no conflict of interest.

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Tvorynska, S., Josypčuk, B., Barek, J. et al. Electrochemical Behavior and Sensitive Methods of the Voltammetric Determination of Food Azo Dyes Amaranth and Allura Red AC on Amalgam Electrodes. Food Anal. Methods 12, 409–421 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-018-1372-1

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