The electrochemical fate of ethylene diamine (ED) was probed at the surface a glassy carbon electrode over a wide range of pH 2-12 using cyclic, differential pulse and square wave voltammetry. A single quasi-reversible anodic peak followed by a reversible voltammetric signature of the oxidized product was evidenced in the first and second scan cyclic voltammograms. The quasi-reversible nature of the electron abstraction process of ED was witnessed by the unequal anodic and cathodic peak currents, scan rate deviation of peak potential and the value of heterogeneous electron transfer rate constant. On the contrary, cyclic and square wave voltammetric results revealed the redox behavior of the oxidized product of ED to be reversible. The redox mechanism was proposed on the basis of the obtained results in order to offer useful guidelines for protection against the harmful effects of diamines. As the presence of diamines in aqueous system is a serious threat to living organisms so we developed and validated a sensitive, robust, specific and reproducible square wave voltammetric method for the rapid determination of low concentration of ED. The linearity was achieved within the concentration range from 30 to 100 M with LOD = 47.4 mu M. Precision was checked with recovery studies. (C) 2014 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.