Analysis of Zinc (II) ion is very important not only from the biochemical point of view but also from the environmental one. Zinc (II) ion plays a central role in a variety of fundamental biological processes such as in cell reproducing and nucleic acid metabolism, and its low physiological concentration is connected with some pathological processes like retarded growth and immunity dysfunctions [1]. On the other hand, contamination of waters by Zinc (II), as a heavy metal ion, causes a worldwide environmental problem [2, 3]. Zinc (II) is often found in effluents discharged from industries [2–4]. The maximum acceptable Zinc (II) concentration in drinking water in 5 mg/L and toxicity for humans is 100–500 mg/d [5]. Therefore, determination and removing excess of Zinc (II) from wastewater is of great important.
Several techniques have been developed for the measurement of Zinc (II) such as spectrophotometric [6], chromatographic [7] and electrochemical [8]. Among these techniques, electrochemical techniques are an efficient one due to their fast response, excellent selectivity, high sensitivity, simplicity and low cost. Anodic stripping voltammetry (ASV) is a commonly used electrochemical technique for electrochemical trace metal ion analysis. This technique comprises preconcentration and stripping steps, so in the first step, metal ions at a low concentration accumulated on the electrode surface which improves sensitivity and detection limit [9–11]. In trace analysis of metal ions, ASV is the most popular with square wave voltammetry (SWV) technique [12–14]. In these studies, many different electrodes are used, among them GCE offer many useful properties of low background current, low cost, wide potential windows and easy surface modification [15–16]. Whilst, bare GCE has useful properties, reports have shown shortcomings associated with use of bare GCE, such as its small surface area and sensitivity due to slow electron transfer kinetics on it [17–18].
However, the electrochemical performances of working electrodes have been improved by modification especially with multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) as a carbon-based nanomaterial owing to its remarkable active surface area, chemical inertness, high strength, and low charge-transfer resistance in both aqueous and non-aqueous solutions [19–30]. Here we used functionalized MWCNT based ion imprinted polymer (IIP) as a modifier for GCE modification.
Today, IIP materials, as a class of smart polymers, containing a large number of metal ion recognition cavities were designed for the selective recognition and separation of target metal ions, due to its low cost, outstanding selectivity, and high electrochemical stability [30–32]. These polymers are prepared by using metal ions with a functional monomer used as a complexing agent in presence of cross-linking agent and initiator. Then, strong acid is used to leach out the metal ion from the imprinted polymer to form selective template cavities [33–37]. During the IIPs synthesis, the morphology of the prepared particles can be controlled by varying the experimental conditions such as solvent volume, temperature and stirring speed of polymerization solution, specially the cross-linker/monomer feed ratio as a decisive factor in selective adsorption of target metal ions [38, 39].
In this study, a novel electrochemical sensor for Zn (II) ion sensing was constructed by ion imprinting approach in the cross-linker/monomer feed ratio of 8. The synthesized IIP nanoparticles and its behavior after removing zinc (II) ions were described. The IIP and functionalized MWCNT nanocomposite was utilized for modification of GCE. Functionalized MWCNT was used to increase the surface area, enhance electron transfer kinetics, and facile Zinc (II) diffusion, resulting enhancement in modified electrode sensitivity. The electrochemical behaviors of Zinc (II) were studied in detail on modified electrode. After optimization of parameters, the calibration curve was prepared and its linear regression and limit of detection (LOD) were determined. The prepared modified electrode was successfully applied to determine Zinc (II) ion concentration in the real sample.