Electrochemical nano-platform based on screen-printed carbon electrodes functionalized with ionically imprinted polycurcumin for the in-situ quantification of mercury (11) in water samples

Abstract

The present invention describes the development of a highly sensitive electrochemical nano-platform for the presence of mercury(II) ions in water samples. This platform consists of screen-printed electrodes containing a pseudo-reference electrode (Ag / AgCl), a carbon counter electrode, and a carbon working electrode modified by a hybrid nanocomposite and an ion-imprinted polymer. In order to develop the working electrode of the electrochemical platform, the surface of the working electrode was coated with a nanocomposite based on reduced graphene oxide, 1-pyrene carboxylic acid and gold nanoparticles by adopting the droplet deposition modification method. Next, the new electrode surface was functionalized with mercury(II) ion-imprinted polycurcumin by adopting the in-situ electropolymerization method of curcumin in the presence of mercury ions. The electrochemical study, performed by differential pulse voltammetry, reveals a good correlation between the current intensity and the concentration of the target analyte in the linear concentration range from 0.04 to 2 µM Hg2+. The electrochemical platform enabled rapid, sensitive, and in-situ detection of Hg2+ ions in various water samples with good analytical performance. namely a low detection limit of the order of 0.62 nM and a high stability of response (storage stability, reproducibility, etc.).