Rapid and sensitive electrochemical determination of tartrazine in commercial food samples using IL/AuTiO2/GO composite modified carbon paste electrode

A novel electrochemical sensor based on the modification of carbon paste electrode with an ionic liquid (1-butyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate) and AuTiO2/GO composite (IL/AuTiO2/GO/CPE) was developed for rapid and sensitive determination of tartrazine by differential pulse voltammetry. Under the optimum experimental conditions, the peak current was linear to concentration of tartrazine in the ranges of 1-400 mu mol L-1 and 400-1000 mu mol L-1, with sensitivities of 0.008 mu A mu mol L-1 and 0.002 mu A mu mol L-1, respectively, and with a limit of detection of 0.33 mu mol L-1 (S/N = 3). To demonstrate the performance of the method, the reproducibility was studied and the obtained values of RSD% were 2.72%. The method was applied to the sensitive determination of tartrazine in isotonic drink, mustard and yellow egg dye samples with recovery rates between 98.55% and 103.62%.