Electrochemical sensor based on nanostructured ion imprinted polymer for the sensing and extraction of Cr(III) ions from industrial wastewater

ABSTRACT In the present study we prepared a novel ion imprinted polymer as a sensitive electrochemical sensor for the determination of Cr(III) ion. The Cr(III) ion imprinted polymer was fabricated on a platinum electrode. Due to the presence of a nanolayer on the ion imprinted polymer with specific binding sites, the sensor reacted quickly to Cr(III) ion and can be used for selective extraction of Cr(III) ion. The Cr(III) ion imprinted polymer was prepared by using methacrylic acid as the functional monomer, N , N '‐methylene‐bis‐acrylamide as the crosslinking agent, potassium peroxodisulfate as initiator and Cr(III) ion as the template molecule. Non‐imprinted polymers were also prepared for comparative studies. The synthesized polymer was characterized using Fourier transform IR spectroscopy, TEM, Energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy and XRD. The limit of detection of the platinum–mutiwalled carbon nanotube ion imprinted polymer sensor was found to be 0.051 µmol L –1 using differential pulse voltammetry. Moreover, the proposed method was effectively used for the sensing and extraction of Cr(III) ion in real samples collected from the metal plating industry. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry