Ionic liquid-multi-walled carbon nanotubes modified screen-printed electrodes for sensitive electrochemical sensing of uranium

Abstract

Here, two screen-printed electrodes modified with multi-walled carbon nanotubes alone (electrode III) or along with a triazole-based ionic liquid (electrode VII) were developed for sensitive uranium(VI) determination. The electrodes exhibited calibration slopes of 25.10 ± 1.35 and 29.93 ± 0.88 mV decade−1 over the concentration ranges of 1.0 × 10–5–1.0 × 10–1 and 4.7 × 10–7–1.0 × 10–1 mol L−1 for electrodes III and VII, respectively. The electrodes showed fast response times with a service life exceeding 5 months. The electrodes revealed good thermal stability and fairly high uranium(VI) selectivity over many cations and anions. The electrodes were successfully employed for sensitive detection of uranium(VI) in different water samples.