Abstract
The rapid detection of trace metals is one of the most important aspect in achieving environmental monitoring and protection. Electrochemical sensors remain a key solution for rapid detection of heavy metals in environmental water matrices. This paper reports the fabrication of an electrochemical sensor obtained by the simultaneous electrodeposition of MnO2 nanoparticles and RGO nanosheets on the surface of a glassy carbon electrode. The successful electrodeposition was confirmed by the enhanced current response on the cyclic voltammograms. The XRD, HR-SEM/EDX, TEM, FTIR, and BET characterization confirmed the successful synthesis of MnO2 nanoparticles, RGO nanosheets, and MnO2@RGO nanocomposite. The electrochemical studies results revealed that MnO2@RGO@GCE nanocomposite considerably improved the current response on the detection of Zn(II), Cd(II) and Cu(II) ions in surface water. These remarkable improvements were due to the interaction between MnO2 nanomaterials and RGO nanosheets. Moreover, the modified sensor electrode portrayed high sensitivity, reproducibility, and stability on the simultaneous determination of Zn(II), Cd(II), and Cu(II) ions. The detection limits of (S/N = 3) ranged from 0.002–0.015 μg L−1 for the simultaneous detection of Zn(II), Cd(II), and Cu(II) ions. The results show that MnO2@RGO nanocomposite can be successfully used for the early detection of heavy metals with higher sensitivity in water sample analysis.
Highlights
The key challenge in environmental pollution remediation is the early detection of the contaminants
Electrochemical sensors can detect various electroactive compounds by providing specific responses to various analytes by generating Faraday currents at different potentials [3]. Heavy metals such as copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd), and zinc (Zn), amongst others, are electroactive materials that are suitable for electrochemical detection
Trace amounts below the maximum recommended levels by the world Health Organization (WHO), copper and zinc, amongst others, play an important role in living organisms as they are essential for the metabolism related maintenance [1,4]
Summary
The key challenge in environmental pollution remediation is the early detection of the contaminants. Due to the serious hazardous effects of heavy metal ions on human health and the toxicity to the ecosystem, it is important to develop a simple and highly sensitive electrochemical method for the early detection of the studied heavy metals, to improve the quality of the environment and human life. Compared with the abovementioned methods, electrochemical techniques have attracted great interest on the detection of heavy metal ions due to their remarkable sensitivity, portability, and low cost [1,15,16]. For this reason, there is an ongoing research on the development of rapid and friendly-user techniques for trace heavy metals detection suitable for in situ monitoring assays [17]. The effect interfering ions, precisions (repeatability and reproducibility), and the accuracy of the developed electrochemical sensor were investigated
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