A novel chloride selective potentiometric sensor based on graphitic carbon nitride/silver chloride (g-C3N4/AgCl) composite as the sensing element

Abstract

In this research, AgCl anchored graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) was introduced as a novel potentiometric sensing element. A g-C3N4/AgCl-modified carbon paste electrode (CPE) was fabricated and used as an outstandingly selective potentiometric sensor to determine Cl− in water samples. The g-C3N4/AgCl nanocomposite was characterized with SEM, XRD and FT-IR techniques. It was demonstrated that, the incorporation of 5% of g-C3N4/AgCl, as a chloride ionophore in a CPE, results in a stable potential response of the electrode to chloride ion. The Nernstian slope of the electrode response was 55.4 (±0.3) mVdecade−1, over a wide linear concentration range of 1 × 10−6–1 × 10−1 mol L−1 and the detection limit of the electrode was estimated to be 4.0 × 10−7 mol L−1. The g-C3N4/AgCl-modified CPE electrode provided fast response time and long-term stability (more than 2 months) while the potential interfering ions such as I−, Br−, and CN− showed no significant effect on the potential response. Since these interfering ions affected the response of the CPE electrode, modified with AgCl, highlighting the interesting effect of g-C3N4 on the sensor performance. This innovative electrode was shown to be a sensitive and accurate sensor for chloride ion content estimation in water samples.