Novel Copper(II)-Selective Potentiometric Sensor Based on a Folic Acid-Functionalized Carbon Nanotube Material

Reliable environmental trace heavy metal analysis with potentiometric ion sensors - reality or a distant dream

Over two decades have passed since polymeric membrane ion-selective electrodes were found to exhibit sufficiently lower detection limits. This in turn brought a great promise to measure trace level concentrations of heavy metals using potentiometric ion sensors at environmental conditions. Despite great efforts, trace analysis of heavy metals using ion-selective electrodes at environmental conditions is still not commercially available. This work will predominantly concentrate on summarizing and evaluating prospects of using potentiometric ion sensors in view of environmental determination of heavy metals in on-site and on-line analysis modes. Challenges associated with development of reliable potentiometric sensors to be operational in environmental conditions will be discussed and reasoning behind unsuccessful efforts to develop potentiometric on-site and on-line environmental ion sensors will be explored. In short, it is now clear that solely lowering the detection limit of the ion-selective electrodes does not guarantee development of successful sensors that would meet the requirement of environmental matrices over long term usage. More pressing challenges of the properties and the performance of the potentiometric sensors must be addressed first before considering extending their sensitivity to low analyte concentrations. These are, in order of importance, selectivity of the ion-selective membrane to main ion followed by the membrane resistance to parallel processes, such as water ingress to the ISM, light sensitivity, change in temperature, presence of gasses in solution and pH and finally resistance of the ion-selective membrane to fouling. In the future, targeted on-site and on-line environmental sensors should be developed, addressing specific environmental conditions. Thus, ion-selective electrodes should be developed with the intention to be suitable to the operational environmental conditions, rather than looking at universal sensor design validated in the idealized and simple sample matrices.

Exploitation of 2D Cu-MOF nanosheets as a unique electroactive material for ultrasensitive Cu(II) ion estimation in various real samples

Herein, hybrid carbon sensor has been developed with graphite sheets as a matrix, tricresyl phosphate (TCP) as a plasticizer and nanosheets of 2D Cu-MOF (metal-organic framework) as an electroactive material for the ultrasensitive Cu(II) ion detection in various real samples. Where, the present study proves the efficiency of 2D Cu-MOF as a promising sensing material for the development of Cu(II) ion selective carbon sensor. The developed 2D Cu-MOF nanosheets based sensor containing 2D Cu-MOF: TCP: graphite in the ratio of 2.67: 30.54: 66.79 (% wt/wt) displayed unique Nernstian behavior over two linearity ranges of 1.0 × 10^-11-1.0 × 10^-9 and 1.0 × 10^-5-1.0 × 10^-1 mol L^-1 with slopes of 29.5 ± 0.25 and 29.6 ± 0.13 mV decade^-1, respectively. The fabricated carbon sensor achieved a widely pH independency, fast response time and superior thermal stability with highly selective and ultrasensitive performance. Moreover, It has been efficiently applied for the Cu(II) ion potentiometric estimation in human hair, sesames seeds, two different tea infusions and tap water real samples.

Rapid, sensitive, and selective copper (II) determination using sensitive chromogenic azo dye based on sulfonamide

A simple methods have been developed for determination of Cu(II) ions in aqueous solutions. The spectrophotometric method relied mainly on the reaction between Cu(II) ions and the azo dye ligand named N-diaminomethylene-4-(2,4-dihydroxy-phenylazo)-benzenesulfonamide (H₂L) at pH 10.0. The influence of parameters such as concentration, pH and reaction time were inspected. A linear relationship (R² = 0.9992) between absorbance and the concentration of Cu(II) was obtained at themaximum absorptionpeak of 474 nm within 1.6-9.6 × 10^-6 mol L^-1 concentration range. The limit of detection for Cu(II) ion and limit of quantitation were 1.1 × 10^-7 mol L^-1 and 3.7 × 10^-7 mol L^-1, respectively.The potentiometric method is based on a novel poly(vinyl chloride) membrane, containing the synthesized azo dye as an ionophore, was used to developed a Cu(II)- selective sensor. This newly developed sensor revealed a Nernstian response over Cu²⁺ ion in a concentration range 1.0 × 10^-6-1.0 × 10^-2 mol L^-1 with cationic slopes of 29.5 ± 0.2 mV decade^-1 and detection limits of 3.0 × 10^-6 mol L^-1 copper(II) for o-nitrophenyl-octyl ether (o-NPOE) based membrane sensor. The electrode showed good discrimination toward Cu²⁺ ions with respect to most common cations. The advantages of the proposed methods are their simplicity, selectivity, and high sensitivity. In addition, the sensor has been used as indicator electrode in the potentiometric titration of Cu²⁺ ion against EDTA. The structure and geometry of the complex formed between Cu(II) and H₂L ligand was identified via isolation of the solid complex; Co(II) an Ni(II) complexes were synthesized as well. The geometrical structure around the metal centers were proved to be square planar for Cu(II) complex and tetrahedral for Co(II) an Ni(II) complexes.

Carbonaceous Nanomaterials Employed in the Development of Electrochemical Sensors Based on Screen-Printing Technique—A Review

This paper aims to revise research on carbonaceous nanomaterials used in developing sensors. In general, nanomaterials are known to be useful in developing high-performance sensors due to their unique physical and chemical properties. Thus, descriptions were made for various structural features, properties, and manner of functionalization of carbon-based nanomaterials used in electrochemical sensors. Of the commonly used technologies in manufacturing electrochemical sensors, the screen-printing technique was described, highlighting the advantages of this type of device. In addition, an analysis was performed in point of the various applications of carbon-based nanomaterial sensors to detect analytes of interest in different sample types.