Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

High Performance Zinc Oxide Nanorod-Doped Ion Imprinted Polypyrrole for the Selective Electrosensing of Mercury II Ions

Zouhair Ait-Touchente
,
Houssem Eddine El Yamine Sakhraoui
ORCID logo ,
Najla Fourati
ORCID logo ,
Chouki Zerrouki
,
Naima Maouche
,
Nourdin Yaakoubi
,
Rachid Touzani
ORCID logo ,
Mohamed M. Chehimi
* ORCID logo
Version 1 : Received: 3 September 2020 / Approved: 4 September 2020 / Online: 4 September 2020 (03:28:26 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Ait-Touchente, Z.; Sakhraoui, H.E.E.Y.; Fourati, N.; Zerrouki, C.; Maouche, N.; Yaakoubi, N.; Touzani, R.; Chehimi, M.M. High Performance Zinc Oxide Nanorod-Doped Ion Imprinted Polypyrrole for the Selective Electrosensing of Mercury II Ions. Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 7010. Ait-Touchente, Z.; Sakhraoui, H.E.E.Y.; Fourati, N.; Zerrouki, C.; Maouche, N.; Yaakoubi, N.; Touzani, R.; Chehimi, M.M. High Performance Zinc Oxide Nanorod-Doped Ion Imprinted Polypyrrole for the Selective Electrosensing of Mercury II Ions. Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 7010.

Abstract

A biomimetic, ion-imprinted polymer (IIP) was prepared by electropolymerization of pyrrole at the surface of gold electrodes decorated with vertically grown ZnO nanorods. The vertical growth of the nanorods was achieved via an ultrathin aryl monolayer grafted by reduction of diazonium salt precursor. Pyrrole was polymerized in the presence of L-cysteine as chelatant agent and Hg(II) (template). Hg(II)-imprinted polypyrrole (PPy) was also prepared on bare gold electrode in order to compare the two methods of sensor design (Au-ZnO-IIP vs Au-IIP). Non-imprinted PPy was prepared in the same conditions, however in the absence of any Hg2+ template. The strategy combining diazonium salt modification and ZnO nanorod decoration of gold electrodes permitted to increase considerably the specific surface and thus to improve the sensor performances. The limit of detection (LOD) of the designed sensor was ~1 pM, the lowest value ever reported in literature. The dissociation constants between PPy and Hg2+ were estimated at [Kd1 = (7.89 ± 3.63) mM and Kd2 = (38.10 ± 9.22) pM]. The sensitivity of the designed sensor was found to be 0.692 ± 0.034 μA/pM. The Au-ZnO-IIP was found to be highly selective towards Hg(II) compared to cadmium, lead and copper ions. This sensor design strategy could open up new horizons in monitoring toxic heavy metal ions in water and therefore contribute to enhance environmental quality.

Keywords

ionic imprinted polypyrrole; zinc oxide nanorods; mercury ions; diazonium salts; electrochemical sensor

Subject

Chemistry and Materials Science, Electrochemistry

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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