Patent Application: US-95866302-A

Abstract:
the present invention concerns a method for improving the sensitivity in measurements when performing electrochemical analysis containing low metal concentrations and a means for performing electrochemical analysis . ordinary stirring has to be avoided during the voltammetric scanning due to the low reproducibility when stirring takes place . a sound exposure , however , can be performed during the entire measurement , increasing the sensitivity . further it is concluded that sound exposure close to the resonant frequency , has improvement effects at least comparable to stirring , and thus all mechanical stirring can be avoided . it is found that audible sound in the low frequency range , around 100 hz is very effective for this purpose , with an increase of the analytical signal up to about 300 %, without any significant increase in the corresponding noise level .

Description:
fig1 a depicts a voltammetric analysis system 1 consisting of a cylindrical glass cell 2 ( analysis cell ), a loudspeaker 3 in a solution 4 , and an electrode system 5 with three electrodes . the loudspeaker 3 is put into the solution in fig1 , but it can also be located in or adjacent to the wall of the glass cell 2 or arranged in other suitable ways for generating sound waves in the analysis system . fig1 b depicts a voltammetric analysis system 1 with the loudspeaker 3 located adjacent to the wall of the glass cell 2 . means for applying a voltage signal to the electrode system and for collecting the current signal are not shown in fig1 a and 1b . the experiments were carried out using an eg & amp ; g parc 264a polarographic analyzer with an eg & amp ; g parc 303a static mercury drop electrode and an eg & amp ; g parc 305 stirrer ( princeton applied research , princeton , n . j . 08540 , u . s . a .). otherwise stated , standard 10 ml standard glass cells were used . potentials were measured vs . a silver / silver chloride / saturated silver chloride / saturated potassium chloride reference electrode , using a three - electrode system as shown in fig1 a . the third electrode was a platinum wire . the instrument was connected to a personal computer via a pc - 30 multifunction board ( intel corporation , santa clara , calif . 95051 , u . s . a .) ( not shown in fig1 a ) for data acquisition , calculation and presentation , as discussed in a previous paper [ 2 ]. the solution 4 in the voltammetric cell 2 was exposed to stirring with a magnetic stirrer , or by using the vibration from a commercial electric toothbrush . alternatively , the stirrer was replaced with miniature piezoelectric buzzers 3 ( miniature loudspeakers ) in the solution 4 , using several amplitudes and frequencies . using an adjustable propeller stirrer made in our laboratories also performed several attempts of controlled stirring . the voltammetric cell was exposed to sound by using a 20 w fabr audax at080mo ( elfa s17117 solna , sweden ) broad band loudspeaker , with a wide frequency range ( 55 hz - 20 khz ). this enabled one to investigate in the entire audible sound spectrum as well as somewhat outside that range . this loudspeaker was placed in a water tight inert rubber balloon in the bottom of an inert plastic beaker , to be used as the voltammetric cell . the loudspeaker was connected to a creative sound blaster 32 pnp pc sound card . the commercial computer program cooledit96 ( syntrillium software corporation , p . o . box 62255 , phoenix , ariz . 85082 - 2255 , usa ) was used to generate preferred sound frequencies and amplitudes . the purity of mercury is essential . mercury “ pa . 4403 for polarography ”, e . merck . darmstadt , brd was found to be satisfactory . norsk hydro , norway , supplied oxygen free nitrogen gas . the water was purified by using an elgastat option 4 water purification equipment ( elga ltd . bucks , uk ). all the remaining reagents were of analytical reagent grade quality . all the voltammetric experiments were performed as anodic stripping voltammetry ( dpasv ) of heavy metals , with different exposure to stirring , vibration and sound , during the various parts of the sequences . other modes of voltammetric techniques have not been investigated in the present work , this because the effects are assumed to behave very similar . for practical reasons , the present sound experiments had to be carried out by using a larger volume of the voltammetric cell than the standard one . a 1000 ml plastic beaker was used for that purpose , with the loudspeaker in a watertight balloon at the bottom of the beaker about 1 . 0 cm from the electrode surface . the effect of the applied sound was about 5 w . single frequency sound was mainly applied , but composite sound with more than one single frequency in the range 40 to 2000 hz was also investigated . the effect of the rotation frequency of the mechanical stirrer is shown in fig2 for solutions of zinc ions . fig2 shows voltammetric curves where the resulting current ( i ) is a function of applied potential ( voltage , e appl ( v )) between the working and reference electrode . graph a represents the highest frequency used and graph d represents the lowest frequency used ( a & gt ; b & gt ; c & gt ; d ). the stirring was only performed during the deposition step in each experiment . the highest frequency used ( graph a ) is similar to the fastest able rotation frequency of the magnetic stirrer . as found from the figure , the magnitude of the signal increases substantially with higher rotation frequencies . in fig2 the dpasv analysis was carried out in a 100 ppb zinc in 0 . 1 m kcl solution . the concentration of supporting electrolyte was 0 . 1 m kcl , the deposition time 120 s , the scan rate , 5 mv / s , and pulse height 25 mv . the most interesting experience is the effect of exposure of sound of different frequencies . the sound was applied during all the sequences of each experiment . the results of exposure to sound of different frequencies for solutions of zinc ions are given in fig3 . fig3 shows voltammetric curves where the resulting current ( i ) is a function of applied potential ( voltage , e appl ( v )) between the working and reference electrode . graph a is the result when using sound with a frequency of 100 hz , in graph b the frequency was 200 hz , in graph c the frequency was 300 hz and in graph d the frequency was 500 hz . in fig3 the dpasv analysis was carried out in a 100 ppb zinc in 0 . 1 m kcl solution . the concentration of supporting electrolyte was 0 . 1 m kcl , the deposition time 120 s , scan rate 5 mv / s , and pulse height 25 mv . for experimental reasons , sound with frequencies lower than about 85 hz is difficult to apply using a loudspeaker system , and some mechanical devices as alternative sources for very low frequency sound has to be used [ 42 ] which indicated that the optimum frequency is about 85 hz . this indicates that an optimum frequency of the sound gives a substantial increase of the signal . as expected , in a qualitative way only , an increase of the amplitude of the sound also increase , the signal , leading to that the plot going off scale . the response ( peak current ) vs . the frequency ( hz ) of the exposed sound for a solution with zinc ions is given in fig4 . table 1 gives results from sound exposure and the use of the propeller stirrer for zinc , cadmium and lead ions . finally a part of the solutions were transferred to the cell with the magnetic stirrer for comparative measurements . in table 1 the peak current for zinc , cadmium and lead is given in cm + standard deviation . the dpasv analysis was carried out in a 150 ppb zinc , cadmium , and lead solution . the concentration of supporting electrolyte was 0 . 1 m kcl , the deposition time 120 s , the scan rate 5 mv / 5 , and pulse height 25 mv . five repetitions were performed . by comparing the results from sound exposure and by using the propeller stirring system , a gain of 87 %. 248 % and 183 % in favour of sound exposure was obtained for measurements of zinc , cadmium and lead , respectively . corresponding comparison of sound exposure vs . the use of ordinary magnetic stirrer was 88 %, 284 % and 315 % in favour of sound exposure of the same elements . the experiments above were carried out using a mixed sound containing different frequencies , with the lowest value of 40 hz and highest about 2000 hz . however , for experimental reasons , the duration of the sound was limited to 84 seconds , and restarting was required during the process . this can explain the high value ( 13 . 8 %) of the standard deviation for cadmium . experiments were also performed with non - composite frequency sound of 85 hz , this being close to the expected optimum frequency . the results are given in table 2 . in table 2 the peak height for zinc is given in cm ± standard deviation . the dpsv analysis was performed in a 150 ppb zinc solution and the concentration of the supporting electrolyte was 0 . 1 m kcl , deposition time 120 s , scan rate 5 mv / s . and pulse height 25 mv . five repetitions were performed . in table 3 the peak height is given in μa . the dpsv analysis was performed in a 160 ppb zinc solution . the concentration of supporting electrolyte was 0 . 1 m kcl , deposition time 120 s , scan rate 5 mv / s , and pulse height 25 mv . four repetitions were performed . a typical voltammetric curve for a system exposed to audible sound is given in fig5 . in fig5 the graph shows the resulting current ( i ) as a function of applied potential ( voltage , e appl ( v )) between the working and reference electrode . in fig5 the different peaks represent respectively zn , cd and pb . the dpsv analysis was performed in a 160 ppb zinc solution . the concentration of supporting electrolyte was 0 . 1 m kcl , the deposition time 120 s , scan rate 5 mv / s , and pulse height 25 mv . the sound was applied during all the sequences in the experiment . for comparison , results from six parallels of the similar system , using conventional magnetic stirring are given in table 4 . in table 4 the peak height is given in μa from a usual magnetic stirred solution . dpsv analysis was performed in a 100 ppb zinc , cadmium , and lead solution . the concentration of supporting electrolyte was 0 . 1 m kcl , deposition time 120 s , scan rate 5 mv / s , and pulse height 25 mv . four repetitions were performed . in order to ensure that the sole presence of the loudspeaker system did not effect the results ; some test experiments were carried out . some results are given in table 5 for measurements with cadmium and lead . in table 5 the test experiments were carried out to ensure that the sole presence of the loudspeaker system did not affect the results . dpsv analysis was performed in a 100 ppb cadmium and lead solution . the concentration of the sups porting electrolyte was 0 . 1 m kcl , the deposition time 120 s , scan rate 5 mv / s , and pulse height 25 mv . the initial experiments using simple mechanical stirring during the deposition part of stripping voltammetry stated that some improvements could be obtained by substituting the magnetic stirrer with vibration devices . however , the great difference between the exposure of sound to the voltammetric cell compared with the use of magnetic or propeller stirring is that no stirring can be used during the registration step except from the sound exposure for reasons of reproducibility . in stripping voltammetry , any agitation can be used during the deposition sequence . the present results indicate that pure mechanical agitation and sound exposure , as well as a combination give quite similar effects . however , in the scanning sequence , where sound is the only acceptable interaction , a very pronounced improvement of the signal is achieved . consequently the sound exposure can be performed during all the sequences of stripping voltammetry , and with no real need for additional stirring during the deposition . in the present investigation , differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry is the only technique being used . however , other modes of voltammetry are assumed to behave similarly . it is reasonable to assume that all voltammetric signals in general will be increased by sound exposure . however , with the stripping techniques , the peaks with the most positive potentials are relatively more increased , compared with the traditional method with a magnetic stirrer being used during the deposition only . this can be explained from the fact that the first part of the scanning with sound exposure also involves a significant deposition . accordingly , no deposition sequence should actually be needed when sound exposure is used . this has not at present been studied in our laboratories , but obviously this will substantially facilitate the instrumentation and the application of stripping voltammetry for trace analyses in addition to the obtained gain of sensitivity . the configuration of the cell system and the amplitude of the sound are obviously of great importance for optimum results . resonance and standing waves give most favourable results , and obviously more than one resonance frequency can be present . it is assumed that the electrode system is under steady state conditions with certain exposure of sound . attempts to verify this experimentally , as well as from mathematical modelling are now being carried out in our laboratories . it is concluded that the lowest frequencies investigated give the most optimal gain of the signal . for experimental reasons , sound with frequencies lower than about 85 hz is difficult to apply to the cell system using a loudspeaker system . lower frequencies are at present being investigated in our laboratories by applying some mechanical devices as alternative sources for very low frequency sound . these experiments also indicate an optimum of about 85 hz [ 42 ]. due to the simplicity of generating sound by a loudspeaker via the multimedia equipment of a computer , this technique is preferred for experimental reasons . in conclusion it is also slated that modulation in voltammetry by using low frequency sound is simple to carry out experimentally , and this gives favourable improvements by increasing the sensitivity without a corresponding increase of the level of the noise . this can mainly be explained by an increase of the transport of mass to the electrode surface . further it is assumed that this effect is most pronounced in case of acoustic resonance and when standing waves appear . this increase of mass transport has only been investigated with the technique of dpasv in the present initial investigation . however , it is reasonable to assume that corresponding effects will appear using other modes of voltammetry . different kinds of measuring electrode material can be used with the present invention , but also with voltammetric analysis systems in general , e . g . mercury drop , mercury film , solid metals , carbon , liquid and solid amalgams . solid amalgams , somewhat similar to the amalgam used by dentists , are promising due to 1 ) the high overpotential for hydrogen reduction , as this allows a wide measuring range , and 2 ) the low toxicity 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