Abstract
A room temperature ionic liquid N‐butylpyridinium hexafluorophosphate (BPPF~6~) was used as a binder to make an ionic liquid modified carbon paste electrode (IL‐CPE), which showed good characteristics such as simple preparation procedure, fast electrochemical response and good conductivity. The electrochemical oxidation of ascorbic acid (AA) on the new IL‐CPE was carefully studied. The oxidation peak potential of AA on the IL‐CPE appeared at 109 mV (vs. SCE), which was about 338 mV decrease of the overpotential compared to that obtained on the traditional carbon paste electrode (CPE) and the oxidation peak current was increased for about four times. The electrochemical parameters of AA on the IL‐CPE were calculated with the charge transfer coefficient (α) and the electrode reaction rate constant (k~s~) as 0.87 and 0.800 s^−1^, respectively. Based on the relationship of the oxidation peak current and the concentration of AA a sensitive analytical method was established with cyclic voltammetry. The linear range for AA determination was in the range from 1.0×10^−5^ to 3.0×10^−3^ mol/L with the linear regression equation as I~p~ (μA)=−2.52–0.064C (μmol/L) (n=13, γ=0.9942) and the detection limit was calculated as 8.0×10^−6^ mol/L (3__σ__). The proposed method was free of the interferences of coexisting substances such as dopamine (DA) and amino acids etc., and successfully applied to the vitamin C tablets determination.