Investigation of electrochemical oxidation mechanism, rapid and low-level determination for whitening cosmetic: arbutin in aqueous solution by nano sepiolite clay

Abstract

Arbutin (AR) is one of the important chemical agents that has the lack of adverse effects in cosmetic applications, which has still biological importance and the increasing interest toward arbutin in the cosmetic industry. Electrochemical sensors have received much attention because of their high sensitivity, simplicity, and fast. In this work, an electroanalytical method has been developed and validated for the quantification of AR on nano sepiolite-clay carbon paste electrode. The electrochemical oxidation mechanism of AR was also investigated in the aqueous medium. Nano-sepiolite clay modified carbon paste electrode was used as rapid and the low-level electrochemical sensor for determination of AR. The electrochemical responses of AR were compared on the surfaces of the bare and nano sepiolite modified carbon paste electrode using the cyclic voltammetric method in the BR buffer solution. The results showed the superior electrocatalytic performance on the peak current of AR at the modified carbon electrode. The stripping conditions and experimental parameters (pH, the effect of modifier content, accumulation potential, and time) were optimized to obtain the best oxidation signal of AR. Under the optimized conditions, linear calibration curves were obtained in the concentration range of 0.0362–80.0 µM (with the detection limit of 10.8 nM) with square-wave adsorptive stripping voltammetry. The method was successfully applied for the determination of AR in the cosmetic Tritone cream sample. This work confirms thus that electrochemical sensors may be the potential future candidate for rapid, sensitive, low-level, and reproducible analysis.