Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIP) based electrochemical sensors for detection of endosulfan pesticide

Abstract

The use of endosulfan pesticides in agriculture can cause environmental problems, such as pollution in aquatic environments that can lead to the destruction of fishery resources and drinking water. So, it has become imperative to detect and separate the hazardous pesticide endosulfan from contaminated water. In this work, molecularly imprinted membrane has been fabricated for the specific recognition by using methacrylic acid (MAA) as functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethyl acrylate (EGDMA) as cross-linker. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) confirmed the molecular imprinting of endosulfan on membrane matrix. Sensing of the endosulfan by voltammetry followed this. The electrochemical potential is additional information enhancing the selectivity of the sensor. It can be concluded that MIP-based voltammetric sensors are very promising analytical tool for the development of highly selective analytical sensor. The test results of electrode performance indicated that MIP endosulfanbased aluminum-carbon sensor had a detection limit of 0.02 mM, sensitive in the concentration range from 0.02 to 0.12 mM with Nernst factor > 0.059 V/decade and had good stability.