ELECTROCHEMICAL DETERMINATION OF ETHYL MALTOL ON A GLASSY CARBON ELECTRODE MODIFIED WITH GRAPHENE

Ethyl maltol can be used to enhance the scent of foods. Its monitoring in foods is very important due to the potential harmfulness to human beings if large amounts of this flavor enhancer are ingested. A novel electrochemical method for the determination of ethyl maltol in food samples based on the electrochemical catalytic activity of graphene modified glassy carbon electrode is reported in this paper. The sensor exhibited excellent oxidation activity towards ethyl maltol. Using 1 mol L-1 NH3 center dot H2O-NH4Cl buffer solution (pH 8.0) as supporting electrolyte, ethyl maltol yielded a sensitive oxidation peak on the modified electrode. The influence of some experimental variables for EMA determination, such as supporting electrolyte, scanning rate, accumulation time and concentration of ethyl maltol, were studied. The oxidation peak current showed a linear relationship with the concentrations of ethyl maltol over the range between 6.0 x 10(-7) and 1.0 x 10(-4) mol L-1, with the detection limit of 1.0 x 10(-7) mol L-1. The prepared electrode was used for EMA determination in beer samples with good results.