Studies on the sonochemical polymorphism of SbO on activated graphite for the electrochemical determination of imipramine.

This work reports the simultaneous sonochemical activation of graphite and sonohydrolysis of antimony chloride (SbCl) in the alkaline medium. The experiments conducted by bath sonicator operated at 37 kHz of frequency and a maximum power of 150 W. The simple sonohydrolysis of SbCl alone produced an orthorhombic phase of SbO, whereas, it produced mixed phases of cubic and orthorhombic SbO when introduced with graphite. Herein, the activated graphite (aGR) provides the best support to the growth of cubic phase. This cubic SbO is grown only on the graphite basal planes, which confirmed by scanning electron microscope. Moreover, the phase changes have identified by the X-ray diffraction, Raman and X-ray photoelectron analysis. The prepared aGR-SbO composite has applied to the electroanalytical studies of anti-depressant drug imipramine (IMP). The results showed that aGR-SbO revealed better activity than SbO; the reasons are discussed comprehensively. Furthermore, aGR-SbO exhibited comparable analytical results for the determination of IMP.