Abstract
The electrochemical properties of 2,6-di-tert-butyl-p-cresol (T501) in transformer oil were investigated by using staircase voltammetry (SV) with analysis by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. A new method was established to determine the T501 content in transformer oil. The results showed that the oxidation current Ip (μA) exhibited a linear relationship with the concentration as the mass fraction of T501 within the concentration range from 0.05% to 0.50% under optimal conditions and that the corresponding regression relationship is C = 0.05506Ip − 0.19524 with R2 equal to 0.9995. The limit of detection based upon a signal-to-noise ratio of three was 0.039%. The accuracy was the same as determined by liquid chromatography. The standard addition recovery was 99.33% to 101.67%, indicating high reliability and practicability. Considering the results obtained, the proposed novel electrochemical method is able to enhance the analytical determination of T501 in transformer oil.
Disclosure statement
The authors declare no competing financial interests.