A Rapid Method for Determination of Acid Value in Transformer Oil by PPy Modified Electrode

A polypyrrole-modified glassy carbon electrode (PPy/GC electrode) was prepared and its electrocatalytic behavior towards naphthoquinone in the presence of acid was characterized by linear sweep voltammetry (LSV). A well-defined new reduction peak appeared at a more positive potential than the original reduction peak. The new reduction peak current was linearly related to the acid value (AV) of oil. Based on it, a rapid electrochemical method for determining AV of transformer oil was developed using PPy/GC electrode. A working curve was obtained in the AV range of 0.01 to 0.40 mg(KOH)·g−1, with a sensitivity of 39.42 μA0.5/(mg(KOH)·g−1) and the detection limit of 0.0014 mg(KOH)·g−1 (signal-to-noise ratio is 3, standard deviation is 2.247%). Moreover, the proposed method has been successfully applied to AV determination of several transformer oil samples with advantages of rapidness, high sensitivity and accuracy compared to the conventional method.