Functionalized polyethersulfone as PES-NH2-metal oxide nanofilers for the detection of Y3+

Abstract

The current study displays the synthesis, characterization as well as the performance of PES-NH2 doped with different metal oxide nanomaterials. 5% w/w of ZnO, ZnCoFeO, Fe2O3, and Co3O4 nanofilers (NFs) were doped to the surface of PES-NH2 to make PES-NH2-ZnO, PES-NH2-ZnCoFeO, PES-NH2-Fe2O3-, PES-NH2-Co3O4 NFs, respectively. Then, these metal oxides allowed to interact with amino functions, which were grafted on the PES backbone using two-step reactions: nitration followed by reduction. The results also showed a good thermal behavior for the doped metal oxides polymeric materials in comparison with bare PES-NH2. The morphological structures of the PES-NH2-metal oxide nanocomposites revealed the well-dispersed nanoparticles on the surface of PES-NH2, in which the metal oxides nanoparticles appeared as bright small dots on the surface of polymer matrix. To execute this study, the working electrode of the proposed cation sensor was fabricated by deposition of Co3O4, ZnCoFeO, ZnO, and Fe2O3-PES-NH2 NFs as layer of thin film coated onto a glassy carbon electrode supported with conducting binder. Based on the control experiment with PES-NH2-ZnO, PES-NH2-ZnCoFeO, PES-NH2-Fe2O3, PES-NH2-Co3O4 NFs, PES-NH2-ZnCoFeO NFs exhibited the highest current response in the electrochemical measurement in the presence of selective analyte. A variety of Y3+ ionic concentrations (1.0 mM–0.1 nM) were applied as electrolyte through the assemble of Y3+ cationic sensor. To determine the calibration curve, the current versus the electrolyte concentration was plotted, which was found to be linear with about r2 = 0.99 over the linear dynamic range (LDR) of 0.1 nM to 0.1 mM. The estimated sensitivity and detection limit are 1.1364 µAµM−1 cm−2 and 83.54 ± 4.18 pM, respectively. Therefore, the proposed Y3+ cation exhibited good sensitivity, wide LDR, lower limit of detection, and short time of response (10.0 s) with reproducibility with high precisions.