Planar electrodes based on carbon nanotubes for the potentiometric determination of homologous sodium alkyl sulfates

Abstract

Planar electrodes based on carbon nanotubes, manufactured by screen printing, are proposed for the determination of anionic surfactants in aqueous solutions. A comparative analysis of the electroanalytical characteristics of planar and solid-state sensors based on various ionophores, namely, ion associates of (1) sodium dodecyl sulfate with a cationic complexes of copper(II) and N,N′-bis(salicylidene)ethylenediamine and (2) sodium dodecyl sulfate with cetylpyridinium, is performed. It is shown that planar electrodes can be used to quantify homologous sodium alkyl sulfates in the concentrations range of 4 × 10−7 (5 × 10−6) to 1 × 10−2 (5 × 10−4) M at pH 4–10 in water bodies and to determine the total concentration of anionic surfactants in detergents.