High Sensitive Sensor Based on Carbon Nanotube Electrode for Determination of Lanthanum in the Presence of Calcon Carboxylic Acid

Abstract

In this paper we have investigated the electrochemical activity of lanthanum chloride (La (III)) in the presence of calcon carboxylic acid (CCA) using a multi-walled carbon nano tube/carbon paste electrode (CNT/CPE). The peak current increases linearly with increasing of the La (III) concentration. For this purpose, a few electrochemical methods such as cyclic, differential pulse voltammetry, linear sweep and hydrodynamic voltammetry, and chronoamperometry were used. The results show that calcon carboxylic acid as a ligand was useful for determination of La (III) and was able to improve its sensitivity. Cyclic voltammetry was used for study of reduction reaction of La (III) at the surface of modified electrode. The electrochemical parameters for La (III) at the surface of CNT/CPE, such as diffusion coefficient (D/ cm2 s −1 = 5.26 × 10−6), the electron transfer coefficient, (α = 0. 43), and the reduction rate constant, (k/ M s−1 = 2.33 (±0.015) × 102), were determined using voltammetry methods, which with the detection limit of La (III) by differential pulse voltammetry was found to be 1.3 nM. The combination of CCA with CNT as mediators in carbon paste electrode showed that this electrode is capable, sensitive, and simple to quantify La (III) in real samples with an average recovery of 97.64%.