An electrochemical voltammetric response of Hg2+ and Pb2+ ions using polyaniline-benzothiazole composite modified GCE electrode: Synthesis, characterization and quantum chemical calculation

An efficient electrochemical sensor based on polyaniline-benzothiazole [(3,5-bis (benzo[d]thiazol-2-yl)-[1,1–biphenyl]-4-ol)] (PAni-BEN) composite was designed and synthesized in this study, and it was employed as an electrochemical sensor to detect Hg2+ and Pb2+ ions with good selectivity and sensitivity. Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy, UV–Vis spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray analysis spectroscopy were employed to examine the morphology and structure of the produced composite. The electrochemical characteristics of the electrode modifiers were evaluated using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Also, they were employed to perform both individual and simultaneous sensing studies of various metal ions using the differential pulse voltammetry technique (DPV) in a different supporting electrolyte (acetate buffer (pH 5), phosphate buffer (pH 7), and 0.1 M HCl) mediums. The PAni-BEN composite modified GCE sensor shows remarkable selectivity and sensitivity towards Hg2+ and Pb2+ ions over the other heavy metal ions in 1 to 24.84 µM, respectively. The limits of detection (S/N = 3) were 1 nM and 4.6 nM for Hg2+ and Pb2+ ions. Density Functional Theory (DFT) was used in the present study to accomplish the adsorption mechanism of the suggested sensors. The DFT calculation demonstrated that the PAni-BEN composite was formed with a lower band gap energy than BEN and DD PAni. These findings showed that the suggested sensor (PAni-BEN), which may used to detect Hg2+ and Pb2+ ions, had the lowest detection limit in the acetate buffer medium compared to the proposed electrolyte medium.