Electrochemical determination of trace amounts of environmentally important dyes

A number of dyes exhibit genotoxic or ecotoxic properties leading to the ne ed for sensitive and selective methods for their determination. Because of the easy reducibility of dyes, modern polarographic and voltammetric method s (differential pulse polarography on classical dropping mercury electrode, differential pulse voltammetry on hanging mercury drop electrode or adsorp tive stripping voltammetry) are suitable for the determination of trace amo unts of these substances in the general environment in the vicinity of prod uction plants. The scope and limitations of these methods is reviewed and o ptimum conditions for recently developed methods are summarized. It is show n that the sensitivity of newly developed polarographic and voltammetric me thods is sufficient even for the most demanding applications and their sele ctivity can be increased by their combination with preliminary separation u sing thin layer chromatography or liquid extraction.