Honors Thesis Archive
| Author | Garrhett Via |
|---|---|
| Title | A One-Step Diazotization to Modify Glassy Carbon Electrodes |
| Department | Chemistry |
| Advisor | Dr. Kristin Cline, Dr. Justin Houseknecht, Dr. Doug Andrews |
| Year | 2015 |
| Honors | University Honors |
| Full Text | View Thesis (5842 KB) Note: This is a very large file; it may be easier to download the file to your computer and open it from there. At the author's request, an electronic copy of this thesis is only available to on-campus users. |
| Abstract | A one-step diazotization procedure is proposed as an alternative method for modifying the surfaces of glassy carbon electrodes. The ‘synthesis-grafting’ was effected by grinding an electrode in an aqueous paste of sodium nitrite, p-toluene sulfonic acid, and an arylamine such asp-nitroaniline, m-nitroaniline, or p-aminosalicylic acid. Following the modification, the electrodes were cleaned ultrasonically, and organic solvents such as acetone were found to be most effective at removing non-covalently bound groups. The diazotization procedure was confirmed by azo dye formation from reactions with β-naphthol and with Raman spectroscopy. Further, cyclic voltammetry with dopamine was suggestive of grafted modifying groups at the surface of the glassy carbon electrodes. The coverage of nitrophenyl surface groups was consistent with monolayer coverage at approximately 0.5 nmol/cm2, as determined via the integration of cyclic voltammetry peaks. The electrodes were additionally grafted with salicylic acid groups for the purpose of quantifying copper ions in aqueous solutions. As compared to electrochemical reduction and other more traditional diazotization-modification procedures, synthesis-grafting offers a comparatively simple and promising route for producing modified glassy carbon electrodes with a multitude of applications. |
Return to Main Honors Thesis Archive Page
Back