Electrodeposited apatite coating for solid-phase microextraction and sensitive indirect voltammetric determination of fluoride ions

Electrodeposition was used to prepare a new solid phase microextraction (SPME) coatings. Two apatite SPME coatings, dicalcium phosphate dihydrate (DCPD or brushite) and hydroxyapatite (HAP) were validly and homogeneously one-step electrodeposited on glassy carbon electrode (GCE) under different conditions. The coatings were characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM, CV and EIS. The apatite SPME coatings showed excellent and selective adsorbability to fluoride ions. A novel indirect voltammetric strategy for sensitive detection of fluoride was proposed using K3Fe(CN)6 as indicating probe. The detection principle of fluoride ions was based on the increment of steric hindrance after fluoride adsorption, which resulting in the decrease of the amperometric signal to Fe(CN)63−. The liner ranges were 0.5–20.0 μmol/L for n-DCPD/GCE with the limit of detection of 0.14 μmol/L and 0.1–50.0 μmol/L for n-HAP/GCE with the limit of detection of 0.069 μmol/L, respectively. The developed method was applied to the analysis of water samples (lake, spring and tap water) and the recovery values were found to be in the range of 90–106%.