Electrochemical detection of nicotine in green tea using carbon paste electrode

Abstract

In this work, the electrochemical detection method of nicotine molecule using carbon paste electrode (CPE) has been studied. A 3-electrode-based arrangement has been used to detect nicotine content in green tea sample where CPE is used as working electrode (WE), Ag/AgCl electrode as reference electrode (RE), and platinum electrode as counter electrode (CE). Experimental studies took place using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) techniques. A satisfactory linear range was obtained for different concentrations of nicotine molecules, which lied between 5[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]M to 200[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]M, respectively, with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.24[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]M. Using DPV technique, it was also investigated that oxidation peak current increases with increasing scan rate and concentration. Moreover, this CPE was used for real sample analysis of green tea leaves, which showed satisfactory recovery rates of 92.8% for 5[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]M spiking, 98.2% for 10[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]M spiking, and 96.75% for 20[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]M spiking of the nicotine molecule in green tea sample.