Stripping Voltammetry

Electroanalytical stripping methods, which involve initial preconcentration of the chemical species at an electrode, are simple and inexpensive. Anodic stripping voltammetry (ASV) has been used extensively to determine metals in environmental samples. Trace metals, such as cadmium and lead, are reduced onto a hanging mercury drop electrode, and are then determined oxidatively by scanning to more positive potentials. Determinations can be made at even lower concentrations by using a (rotating) mercury film electrode (MFE) where the metals cannot diffuse far into the mercury from the surface. Cathodic stripping voltammetry (CSV) originally involved oxidizing mercury to form an insoluble mercury salt of the determinand: the mercury ion was reduced during the negative-going potential scan