Electrochemical Detection of 4‐Chlorophenol Using Glassy Carbon Electrodes Modified with Thulium Double‐Decker Phthalocyanine Salts

4-Cyanophenol herbicide sensor using multi-walled carbon nanotube embedded dual-microporous polypyrrole nanoparticles as metal-free and environmentally friendly hybrid electrode

A highly sensitive 4-cyanophenol (4-CP) sensor was fabricated using multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)-embedded dual-microporous polypyrrole nanoparticle-modified screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPCE/DMPPy/MWCNT). The well-defined dual pores of DMPPy and MWCNT (~ 0.53 and ~ 0.65 nm) acted as good analyte absorption agents (shortening the ion diffusion path) and conducting agents (reducing the internal electron-transfer resistance). This enhanced electrical conductivity resulted in the improved electro-oxidation of 4-CP. A higher sensitivity (19.0 μA μM^-1 cm^-2) and lower limit of detection (0.8 nM) were achieved with a wide detection range of 0.001-400 µM (R² = 0.9988). The proposed sensor exhibited excellent recovery of 4-CP in real-world samples. Therefore, the SPCE/DMPPy/MWCNT sensor is regarded highly suitable for rapidly detecting 4-CP.

Electropolymerized Aniline-Based Stainless Steel Fiber Coatings Modified by Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes for Electroanalysis of 4-Chlorophenol

In this paper, a stainless steel fiber coated electropolymerized aniline, without and with carbon nanotubes (SS/PANI and SS/PANI/CNT), along with CNTs modified carbon paste electrodes (CPEs), were prepared. The electrodes were characterized by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) and applied for the detection of 4-chlorophenol (4-CP). For all the electrodes, the oxidative peak current showed a linear dependence on the 4-CP concentration in the range of 0.05-0.5 mmol/L with R² ≥ 0.991. SS/PANI/CNT electrodes showed greater sensitivity for the detection of the 4-CP than the SS/PANI and CPEs. For all of the aniline-based stainless steel electrodes, both the LOD and LOQ decreased with the increase in the number of electropolymerization cycles. The lowest LOD (0.38 µmol/L) and LOQ (1.26 µmol/L) were observed for the SS/PANI/CNT electrode modified in aniline solution during 30 cycles. The methods were successfully applied to the analysis of 4-CP in real samples (tap water and river water). The results demonstrated the good agreement of the added and found concentrations of the 4-CP. The recovery and precision were from 95.12% to 102.24% and from 1.53% to 6.79%, respectively. The proposed electrodes exhibited acceptable reproducibility, admirable stability, and adequate repeatability and showed potential for the analysis of 4-CP in water.

Lanthanide-tetrapyrrole complexes: synthesis, redox chemistry, photophysical properties, and photonic applications

Tetrapyrrole derivatives such as porphyrins, phthalocyanines, naphthalocyanines, and porpholactones, are highly stable macrocyclic compounds that play important roles in many phenomena linked to the development of life. Their complexes with lanthanides are known for more than 60 years and present breath-taking properties such as a range of easily accessible redox states leading to photo- and electro-chromism, paramagnetism, large non-linear optical parameters, and remarkable light emission in the visible and near-infrared (NIR) ranges. They are at the centre of many applications with an increasing focus on their ability to generate singlet oxygen for photodynamic therapy coupled with bioimaging and biosensing properties. This review first describes the synthetic paths leading to lanthanide-tetrapyrrole complexes together with their structures. The initial synthetic protocols were plagued by low yields and long reaction times; they have now been replaced with much more efficient and faster routes, thanks to the stunning advances in synthetic organic chemistry, so that quite complex multinuclear edifices are presently routinely obtained. Aspects such as redox properties, sensitization of NIR-emitting lanthanide ions, and non-linear optical properties are then presented. The spectacular improvements in the quantum yield and brightness of Yb^III-containing tetrapyrrole complexes achieved in the past five years are representative of the vitality of the field and open welcome opportunities for the bio-applications described in the last section. Perspectives for the field are vast and exciting as new derivatizations of the macrocycles may lead to sensitization of other Ln^III NIR-emitting ions with luminescence in the NIR-II and NIR-III biological windows, while conjugation with peptides and aptamers opens the way for lanthanide-tetrapyrrole theranostics.