Electrochemical oxidation and detection of paeonol on modified electrode with acetylene black nanoparticles

With an aim to construct a sensing platform for the electrochemical detection of paeonol, we modified the glassy carbon electrode with acetylene black nanoparticle (AB). A sensitive oxidation peak of paeonol was observed with remarkably increased peak current on the modified electrode because the electrode has a big surface area due to three dimensional structure of AB nanoparticles. The optimization of detection conditions was performed, including pH value of the buffer, the amount of AB nanoparticles on the electrode surface, the accumulation potential and time of paeonol. Under the optimized conditions, the oxidation peak current of paeonol increased linearly with its concentration over the range from 5 × 10−7 to 1 × 10−4 M. The detection limit was calculated to be 1 × 10−7 M. The modified electrode was successfully applied to detect the content of paeonol in cortex moutan, a common traditional Chinese medicine. The method is new, sensitive, rapid and convenient for the detection of paeonol.