Chemical Sensor for Determination of Mercury in Contaminated Water

Abstract

In this research, we constructed chemical sensor for determining mercury in contaminated water because we needed fast, simple, low-cost, and accurate determination of mercury in different environmental systems. The constructed membrane composed of (Poly Vinyl Chloride) PVC as a matrix material, 1,5-diphenylthiocarbazone (dithizone) as electro active compound, and din -butyl phthalate (DBPH) as a plasticizer. The optimum membrane composition 30% PVC, 65% DBPH, 5% dithizone exhibited the better Nernstian response. The results showed that probe is high stability along the pH range from (3.5 to 8). The electrode displays a linear log [Hg 2+ ] versus Electromotive Force (EMF) response over a wide concentration range of (5×10 −6 to 1×10 −2 M) with Nernstian slope of 29.7 ± 0.5 mV decade-1 and limit of detection 3×10 −6 M. The proposed sensor shows relatively high selectivity for mercury ion in different matrix solution, other ions had negligible interference effect on the reading.