Determination of cesium ions in environmental water samples with a magnetic multi-walled carbon nanotube imprinted potentiometric sensor

Abstract

A potentiometric sensor, based on the glassy carbon electrode (GCE) modified with a magnetic multi-walled carbon nanotubes/cesium ion-imprinted polymer composite (MMWCNTs@Cs-IIP), is introduced for the detection of cesium(i). The IIP was synthesized using cesium ions as the template ions, chitosan as the functional monomer and glutaraldehyde as the cross-linking agent. The membrane, which was coated on the surface of the GCE, was prepared using MMWCNTs@Cs(i)-IIP as the modifier, PVC as the neutral carrier, 2-nitrophenyloctyl ether as the plasticizer and sodium tetraphenylborate as the lipophilic salt. The proposed sensor exhibited a Nernstian slope of 0.05954 V dec−1in a working concentration range of 1 × 10−7to 1 × 10−4M (mol L−1) with a detection limit of 4 × 10−8M. The sensor exhibited high selectivity for cesium ions and was successfully applied for the determination of Cs(i) in real samples.