Metal-free cysteamine-functionalized graphene alleviates mutual interferences in heavy metal electrochemical detection
Yang, Qiuyue (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)
Nguyen, Emily P. (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)
Panáček, David (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)
Šedajová, Veronika (Palacký University Olomouc)
Hrubý, Vítězslav (Palacký University Olomouc)
Rosati, Giulio (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)
De Carvalho Castro Silva, Cecilia (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)
Bakandritsos, Aristides (VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava)
Otyepka, Michal (VSB-Technical University of Ostrava)
Merkoçi, Arben (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)

Date:	2023
Abstract:	Heavy metal pollutants are of great concern to environmental monitoring due to their potent toxicity. Electrochemical detection, one of the main techniques, is hindered by the mutual interferences of various heavy metal ions in practical use. In particular, the sensitivity of carbon electrodes to Cd 2+ ions (one of the most toxic heavy metals) is often overshadowed by some heavy metals (e. g. Pb 2+ and Cu 2+). To mitigate interference, metallic particles/films (e. g. Hg, Au, Bi, and Sn) typically need to be embedded in the carbon electrodes. However, these additional metallic materials may face issues of secondary pollution and unsustainability. In this study, a metal-free and sustainable nanomaterial, namely cysteamine covalently functionalized graphene (GSH), was found to lead to a 6-fold boost in the Cd 2+ sensitivity of the screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE), while the sensitivities to Pb 2+ and Cu 2+ were not influenced in simultaneous detection. The selective enhancement could be attributed to the grafted thiols on GSH sheets with good affinity to Cd 2+ ions based on Pearson's hard and soft acid and base principle. More intriguingly, the GSH-modified SPCE (GSH-SPCE) featured high reusability with extended cycling times (23 times), surpassing the state-of-art SPCEs modified by non-covalently functionalized graphene derivatives. Last, the GSH-SPCE was validated in tap water. A metal-free thiol-modified graphene derivative introduces a reusable approach to alleviate mutual interference in electrochemical heavy metal detection.
Grants:	Agencia Estatal de Investigación MAT2017-87202-P Agencia Estatal de Investigación SEV-2017-0706 European Commission 683024
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Published in:	Green chemistry, Vol. 25, Issue 4 (February 2023) , p. 1647-1657, ISSN 1463-9262

DOI: 10.1039/d2gc02978b
PMID: 36824602

11 p, 2.4 MB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles