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

Ait-Touchente, Zouhair; Sakhraoui, Houssem Eddine El Yamine; Fourati, Najla; Zerrouki, Chouki; Maouche, Naima; Yaakoubi, Nourdin; Touzani, Rachid; Chehimi, Mohamed M.

doi:10.3390/app10197010

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

by

Zouhair Ait-Touchente

^1,*,

Houssem Eddine El Yamine Sakhraoui

²

,

Najla Fourati

^3,*,

Chouki Zerrouki

³,

Naima Maouche

²,

Nourdin Yaakoubi

⁴,

Rachid Touzani

¹ and

Mohamed M. Chehimi

^5,*

¹

LCAE-FSO, Université Mohammed Premier, Oujda 60000, Morocco

²

Laboratoire d’Electrochimie et Matériaux, Université Ferhat Abbas, Sétif-1 19000, Algeria

³

SATIE, UMR CNRS 8029, Cnam, 75003 Paris, France

⁴

LAUM, UMR CNRS 6613, Le Mans Université, 72085 Le Mans, France

⁵

ICMPE, UMR CNRS 7182, CNRS, 94320 Thiais, France

^*

Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(19), 7010; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10197010

Submission received: 3 September 2020 / Revised: 23 September 2020 / Accepted: 30 September 2020 / Published: 8 October 2020

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomimetic Sensors and Actuators)

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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 chelating agent and Hg²⁺ (template). Hg²⁺-imprinted polypyrrole (PPy) was also prepared on a 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 but in the absence of any Hg²⁺ template. The strategy combining diazonium salt modification and ZnO nanorod decoration of gold electrodes permitted us to increase considerably the specific surface area and thus improve the sensor performance. The limit of detection (LOD) of the designed sensor was ~1 pM, the lowest value ever reported in the literature for gold electrode sensors. The dissociation constants between PPy and Hg²⁺ were estimated at [K_d1 = (7.89 ± 3.63) mM and K_d2 = (38.10 ± 9.22) pM]. The sensitivity of the designed sensor was found to be 0.692 ± 0.034 μA.pM^-1. The Au-ZnO-IIP was found to be highly selective towards Hg²⁺ 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 enhancing environmental quality.

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

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MDPI and ACS Style

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. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10197010

AMA Style

Ait-Touchente Z, Sakhraoui HEEY, Fourati N, Zerrouki C, Maouche N, Yaakoubi N, Touzani R, Chehimi MM. High Performance Zinc Oxide Nanorod-Doped Ion Imprinted Polypyrrole for the Selective Electrosensing of Mercury II Ions. Applied Sciences. 2020; 10(19):7010. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10197010

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ait-Touchente, Zouhair, Houssem Eddine El Yamine Sakhraoui, Najla Fourati, Chouki Zerrouki, Naima Maouche, Nourdin Yaakoubi, Rachid Touzani, and Mohamed M. Chehimi. 2020. "High Performance Zinc Oxide Nanorod-Doped Ion Imprinted Polypyrrole for the Selective Electrosensing of Mercury II Ions" Applied Sciences 10, no. 19: 7010. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10197010

APA Style

Ait-Touchente, Z., Sakhraoui, H. E. E. Y., Fourati, N., Zerrouki, C., Maouche, N., Yaakoubi, N., Touzani, R., & Chehimi, M. M. (2020). High Performance Zinc Oxide Nanorod-Doped Ion Imprinted Polypyrrole for the Selective Electrosensing of Mercury II Ions. Applied Sciences, 10(19), 7010. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10197010

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

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