Electrochemical Determination of Lead(II) in Environmental Waters Using a Sulfydryl Modified Covalent Organic Framework by Square Wave Anodic Stripping Voltammetry (SWASV)

Abstract

A novel sulfhydryl-modified covalent organic framework was designed for the selective determination of lead(II) using square wave anodic stripping voltammetry. The introduction of sulfhydryl groups enhanced the selectivity and sensitivity of the covalent organic framework for analytes. The sulfhydryl-modified covalent organic framework was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. Under the optimized conditions, a sulfhydryl-modified covalent organic framework/gold electrode was successfully used for the determination of lead(II) in water samples. The newly developed square wave anodic stripping voltammetry method exhibited wide linearity (0.05 to 20 ng mL−1, r = 0.991), a low limit of detection (0.015 ng mL−1) and good precision, with a relative standard deviation values <5.1%. The limit of detection was lower than 10 ng mL−1, the level of lead(II) in drinking water permitted by the World Health Organization. The recoveries of three spiked samples ranged from 90.0% to 104.0%, with relative standard deviations <4.9%. Satisfactory reproducibility and good repeatability demonstrated that the newly developed method is very suitable for the detection of lead(II) in real water samples, with significant advantages over existing methods.