Enhanced detection of 4-nitrophenol in drinking water: ECL sensor utilizing velvet-like graphitic carbon nitride and molecular imprinting

Abstract

In this work, a molecularly imprinted electrochemiluminescence (ECL) sensor was developed for selective detection of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) in drinking water for the first time. By synthesizing velvet-like graphitic carbon nitride (V-g-C3N4) via one-step thermal polycondensation and integrating it with a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP), the ECL sensor was fabricated. The MIP-modified V-g-C3N4 composites (MIP/V-g-C3N4) were synthesized using a sol-gel method with 4-NP as the template molecule. Under optimal conditions, the ECL sensor exhibited a wide detection range (5 × 10−10-1 × 10−5 mol/L) and a low detection limit (1.8 × 10−10 mol/L). In testing with actual drinking water samples, it displayed high accuracy (recoveries for intraday and inter-day: 93.50–106.2% and 97.00–107.3%, separately) and precision (RSDs for intraday and inter-day: 1.54–4.59% and 1.53–4.28%, respectively). The developed MIP-based ECL sensor demonstrated excellent selectivity, stability, and reproducibility, offering a promising and reliable approach for highly sensitive and selective determination of 4-NP in drinking water.