Remarkable sensitivity for detection of bisphenol A on a gold electrode modified with nickel tetraamino phthalocyanine containing Ni–O–Ni bridges

This work reports the electrocatalysis of bisphenol A on Ni(II) tetraamino metallophthalocyanine (NiTAPc) polymer modified gold electrode containing Ni–O–Ni bridges (represented as Ni(OH)TAPc). The Ni(II)TAPc films were electro-transformed in 0.1 mol L−1 NaOH aqueous solution to form ‘O–Ni–O oxo bridges’, forming poly-n-Ni(OH)TAPc (where n is the number of polymerising scans). poly-30-Ni(OH)TAPc, poly-50-Ni(OH)TAPc, poly-70-Ni(OH)TAPc and poly-90-Ni(OH)TAPc films were investigated. The polymeric films were characterised by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and the charge transfer resistance (RCT) values increased with film thickness. The best catalytic activity for the detection of bisphenol A was on poly-70-Ni(OH)TAPc. Electrode resistance to passivation improved with polymer thickness. The electrocatalytic behaviour of bisphenol A was compared to that of p-nitrophenol in terms of electrode passivation and regeneration. The latter was found to passivate the electrode less than the former. The poly-70-Ni(OH)TAPc modified electrode could reliably detect bisphenol A in a concentration range of 7 × 10−4 to 3 × 10−2 mol L−1 with a limit of detection of 3.68 × 10−9 mol L−1. The sensitivity was 3.26 × 10−4 A mol−1 L cm−2