The aim of this presentation is to show that even in the time of fascinating possibilities of modern separation and spectrometric methods, modern electroanalytical methods, namely voltammetry and amperometry, can play an important role in modern analytical chemistry because of low cost, short time of analysis, portable instrumentation, user-friendliness, compatibility with green analytical chemistry and reasonable sensitivity and selectivity. It is useful to remind that polarography, developed more than 100 years ago by Jaroslav Heyrovsky at our university in Prague, was the first analytical method with automatic registration of dependence of a signal on certain parameter enabling to extract both qualitative (based on position of a signal on registered curve) and quantitative information (based on height of a recorded signal) and paved the way for many approaches used nowadays in all instrumental analytical techniques (e.g. standard addition method). However, the main focus of the lecture will be on the search for novel electrode materials with lower noise, broader potential window and higher resistance to passivation which is one of the biggest problems in practical applications of modern voltammetric and amperometric techniques. Practical examples of novel electrode materials successfully used in our laboratory will include amalgam electrodes (polished, mercury film modified, with renewable surface, etc.), porous silver electrodes,, carbon composite electrodes, chromatographic sorbent modified electrodes, polystyrene-based composite electrodes, and different forms of boron doped diamond electrodes, etc. Advantages and disadvantages of different electrode materials and arrangements for both batch analysis and for measuring in flowing systems (HPLC, flow injection analysis, sequential injection analysis, batch injection analysis etc. with electrochemical detection) will be critically compared together with further perspectives of modern electroanalytical methods for high throughput large scale monitoring of biologically active organic compounds in various environmental or biological matrices including their combinations with novel methods of preliminary separation and preconcentration using e.g. hollow fibres, membrane separations, etc. Advantages and limitations or these methods will be demonstrated on monitoring of electrochemically active environmental carcinogens, biomarkers of illness, exposure, and treatment, etc. Possible future trends and attractive fields for further resear will be discussed as well.
