Electrochemical identification of anthraquinone-based dyes in solid microsamples by square wave voltammetry using graphite/polyester composite electrodes.

An electrochemical method for identifying anthraquinone-type dyes in microsamples from works of art, based in the voltammetry of microparticles approach, is reported. Upon attachment onto graphite/polyester composite electrodes, natural pigments aloe, henna, cochineal red, madder lake, kermes, shellac, and alizarin and purpurin taken as reference materials can be identified from their square wave voltammetric profiles in MeCN (0.10 mol L-1 Bu4NPF6) and aqueous (0.25 mol L-1 acetic acid+0.25 mol L-1 sodium acetate) electrolytes. Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available for this article if you access the article at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00216-002-1742-8. A link in the frame on the left on that page takes you directly to the supplementary material.