ELECTROCHEMICAL PERFORMANCE OF COMPOST EXTRACTS CONTAINING N,N,N',N'-TETRAMETHYLPHENYLENEDIAMINE (TMPD)

Composting is a well-known practice for valorizing organic waste materials into useful product. Its use in the management of soils, which are contaminated with organic compounds has been widely studied and reported. Nevertheless, the present approach of analysing the organic compounds and its degradation products using GC-MS is costly. Hence, the need for an alternative analytical screening technique which is less expensive and fast, when compared with the GC-MS analysis. As a probable alternative approach, the cyclic voltammetry of compost extracts containing N,N,N',N'-Tetramethylphenylenediamine (TMPD) is described in this study. The result of the study, however revealed that cyclic voltammetry could neither detect the presence of the TMPD nor its degradation products in any of the compost extract. This might have resulted from the strong and complex matrix of the compost which prevented the oxidation of the TMPD in the compost extract.