Electrochemical sensor based on covalent organic frameworks/MWCNT for simultaneous detection of catechol and hydroquinone

Catechol (CC) and hydroquinone (HQ) are highly toxic organic phenolic compounds and they possess immeasurable harm to human health and the environment. Their simultaneous detection can provide valuable reference for the environment protection and human health. In this work, an imine bond-linked covalent organic framework (COF) was fabricated via a facile solvothermal method and then cooperated with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) to construct a novel electrochemical sensor. The petal-shaped COF provides large specific surface area, and MWCNTs remarkably improve the conductivity of the resulted modified electrode. Co-modification of the COF and MWCNTs to glassy carbon electrode (GCE) leads to a three-dimensional structure and significant synergy. Under the optimal experimental conditions, good linear relationships are obtained over the concentration range from 4.0 to 450 μM for simultaneous determination of CC and HQ and the detection limits are 0.36 μM and 0.38 μM, respectively. The proposed electrochemical sensor shows excellent repeatability, reproducibility, stability, anti-interference and can be exploited to detect simultaneously CC and HQ in Yellow River water and tap water samples.