A simple degradation method for sulfur mustard at ambient conditions using nickelphthalocyanine incorporated polypyrrole modified electrode

Electrocatalytic degradation of sulfur mustard (SM) was studied using a gold electrode modified with nickelphthalocyanine and polypyrrole (NiPc/pPy/Au) in the presence of a cationic surfactant cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide. Several techniques such as cyclic voltammetry, scanning electron microscopy, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy have been employed for the characterization of modified electrodes. NiPc/pPy/Au modified electrode exhibited excellent electrochemical sensing and degradation ability towards SM. The present modification indicated two electron involvements in the electrocatalytic degradation of SM in addition to being an irreversible adsorption controlled process. Degraded products were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Moreover, electrochemical parameters of oxidation of SM such as heterogeneous rate constant (0.436 s 1), transfer coefficient (0.47) and the number of electrons involved (2) were deduced from cyclic voltammetry results. The NiPc/pPy/Au modified electrode showed excellent electrocatalytic degradation towards SM when compared to bare gold, pPy/Au and NiPc/Au modified electrode at ambient conditions.