Electrocatalytic reduction of nitrite on the surface of a glassy carbon electrode modified by palladium(II)-substituted Dawson type heptadecatungstodiphosphate

A palladium(II)-substituted Dawson type heptadecatungstodiphosphate, K₈[P₂W₁₇O₆₁Pd(H ₂O)](abbreviated as P₂W₁₇Pd in the following), was used to construct a new kind of chemically modified electrode (CME) by electrodeposition on the surface of a glassy carbon electrode for the first time. This modified electrode was characterized by Fourier transform infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (FTIRRAS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and cyclic voltammetry (CV). FTIRRAS and XPS suggested that the adsorbed species on the electrode surface has the same Dawson type structure as the heteropolyanion in buffer solution. A couple of waves was observed on the P₂W₁₇Pd CME, which was ascribed to the redox process of the palladium center in the heteropolytungstate. After continuous potential scanning for 30 min in a pH 4.0 buffer, 94% of the original coverage remains for the CME. The P₂W₁₇Pd CME had high electrocatalytic activity for nitrite reduction and exhibited good reproducibility and stability. The catalytic peak current was found to be linear with the nitrite concentration in the range of 1 ∼ 50 mmol/L, with a correlation coefficient of 0.994. The effect of solution pH on the catalytic activity of the CME for nitrite reduction was also investigated.