Presented Ph.D. Thesis is focused on the use of the boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrodes for voltammetric and amperometric determination of selected nitrophenols: 2-nitrophenol (2NP), 4-nitrophenol (4NP), and 2,4-dinitrophenol (2,4DNP). These compounds are listed as "priority pollutants" by United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) due to their negative impact on living organisms and are mainly used in agriculture as plant growth stimulators. BDD electrodes are used for determination of wide range of electrochemically both reducible and oxidisable organic compounds and have become a popular electrode material thanks to its commercial availability and excellent mechanical and electrochemical properties. A differential pulse voltammetric method was developed for the determination of 2NP, 4NP and 2,4DNP at a BDD film electrode using electrochemical reduction and of 4NP and 2,4DNP using electrochemical oxidation. The method was successfully applied for the direct determination of these compounds in drinking and river water in the concentration range from 4×10-7 to 2×10-5 mol.L-1 . To improve the limit of quantification, a preconcentration by solid phase extraction from 100 mL (drinking and river water) and 1000 mL (drinking water) of water samples was used with limit of determination...

This work reports on the cobalt pyridinoporphyrazinate (CoTmtppa) as a platinum-group metal-free catalyst for hydrogen evolution and oxidation reactions with the possibility of use in hydrogen energy and hydrogen potentiometric sensing. A different interaction of CoTmtppa with various electrode substrates, highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) and annealed gold (Au(111)), affects its electrocatalytic behaviour in hydrogen reactions. The formation of a hydride-type complex with the bonding of hydrogen atoms to cobalt centre is supposed to be the rate-determining step. In the case of hydrogen evolution, the maximum catalytic activity of mediator was reached at pH = 11,0, when the HOPG/CoTmtppa showed overpotential decrease by 300 mV and an almost 60-fold increase of current densities compared to HOPG. The electrocatalytic activity of Au(111)/CoTmtppa resulted in a further decrease of overpotential by 175 mV in comparison with HOPG/Co(I)Tmtppa. The electrochemical oxidation of hydrogen was found to depend on hydrogen source which was electrochemically generated on-site or molecular hydrogen supplied from an external source. In the case of electrochemically generated hydrogen, the maximum activity of HOPG/CoTmtppa was reached at pH = 2.1 and an additional it was observed 50 % increase in current...

Present Ph.D. Thesis is focused on the development of electrochemical methods for determination of anticancer drugs using various types of membranes for their preliminary separation. Furthermore, this Thesis reports the study of transport mechanisms of heavy metals in the presence of phytochelatins across biological membranes. Sodium anthraquinone-2-sulphonate (AQS) was used as a model compound for its similar structure with anthraquinone-based (AQ-based) anticancer drugs (doxo/daunorubicin) and also due to its better availability. All these compounds can be easily electrochemically oxidized and/or reduced. Redox behaviour of AQS was investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) in a cathodic region on mercury meniscus modified (m-AgSAE) and polished silver solid amalgam (p-AgSAE) electrodes, Obtained results were used for the development of a micro-volume voltammetric cell (MVVC). Its applicability for voltammetric determination of anticancer drugs was verified by using doxorubicin (DX) as a model substance. The second part of this Thesis deals with therapeutic monitoring of anticancer drugs in the blood circulation of the patients. For pilot experiments, a liquid-flow system with dialysis catheter and amperometric detection was used. The flow rate of carrier...

Presented dissertation thesis is focused on the development of electrochemical methods for the determination of three important tumour biomarkers, namely homovanillic acid (HVA), vanillylmandelic acid (VMA), and 5-hydroxyindole-3-acetic acid (5-HIAA). First part of the study is focused on electrochemical behaviour of these analytes in batch arrangement using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) at screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPCEs). It has been proved that presented method is sufficiently sensitive for monitoring above mentioned analytes. Moreover, it can be used for determination of HVA and VMA in mixture. Obtained limits of detection (LODs) were 0.24 µmol·L-1 for HVA, 0.06 µmol·L-1 for VMA, and 0.12 µmol·L-1 for 5-HIAA. The requirements to speed up the analysis and at the same time to reduce its price initialized our study of the determination of tested biomarkers in flow systems. Firstly, flow injection analysis with amperometric detection was investigated for the determination of all three biomarkers at the same SPCE, and then an analogous determination of structural more similar pair, HVA and VMA, was performed at a boron doped diamond electrode (BDDE). Obtained LODs of optimized methods were as follows: at SPCE 0.07 µmol·L-1 for HVA, 0.05 µmol·L-1 for VMA, and 0.03 µmol·L-1 for 5-HIAA,...

In this work, the application of boron-doped diamond electrodes with various surface pre- treatment were tested on selected oxidizable and reducible model compounds, specifically para and ortho cresols and 2'-deoxycytidine and 7-deazaadenosine labeled by 4-nitrophenyl triazole. The aim of the study was the investigation of electrochemical and adsorptive processes with respect to the development of electroanalytical methods of detection of the selected compounds, or utilization of boron-doped diamond electrodes as detectors in liquid-flow systems. Cresols were used as the model oxidizable compound. On O-terminated and polished boron- doped diamond electrodes, cresols provide oxidation signal owing to their oxidation to methylphenoxy radical at comparable potentials as on other carbon-based electrodes used as a reference in this work, i.e., glassy carbon electrode, pyrolytic graphite electrode, and carbon paste electrode. These carbon electrode materials show relatively high propensity to adsorption of reaction products, while such adsorption is minimal on boron-doped diamond. In situ anodic activation allows for a rapid regeneration of boron-doped diamond surface prior to each scan. A differential pulse voltammetric method that was developed with a detection limit of 0.61 mol∙l-1 to 2.97 mol∙l-1...

9 Abstract In this Ph.D. thesis possibilities of using our proposed potential programs for a multiple-pulse amperometry and a fast scan differential pulse voltammetry in combination with flow systems are presented. The development of new sensitive amperometric and voltammetric methods for the determination of oxidisable biologically active organic compounds is another aim of this work. In the first part of the work, the flow injection system and multiple-pulse amperometric detection were employed to develop and optimize a simple, low-cost, and rapid method for the simultaneous determination of natural and synthetic antioxidants. This technique involves the application of an appropriate potential waveform consisting of a suitable sequence of pulses on a single working electrode, thus allowing distinguish the analytes in a mixture with no need of separation. Conditions for the determination of antioxidants and modelling of the potential program were tested and studied, respectively. Second part of the work describes and characterizes the application of the fast scan differential pulse voltammetry (FSDPV) in combination with the flow systems. FSDPV is the electroanalytical technique that use high scan rate to record voltammograms within several milliseconds and ensures high temporal resolution. This technique...

The purpose of this diploma thesis is to describe the impact of compaction pressure on the electrochemical parameters of lithium-sulfur batteries. Theoretical part of this thesis contains briefly described terminology and general issues of batteries and their division. Every kind of battery is provided with a closer description of a specific battery type. A separate chapter is dedicated to lithium cells, mainly lithium-ion batteries. Considering various composition of lithium-ion batteries, this chapter deeply analyzes mostly used active materials of electrodes, used electrolytes and separators. Considering that the electrochemical principle of Li-S and Li-O batteries is different to Li-ion batteries, these accumulators of new generation are included in individual subhead. In the experimental part of this thesis are described methods used to measure electrochemical parameters of Li-S batteries. Next chapter contains description of preparing individual electrodes and their composition. Rest of the experimental part of my thesis is dedicated to the description of individual experiments and achieved results.