Abstract
Heavy metal ions are dangerous pollutants since they are non-biodegradable and accumulate in ecological systems. The identification of these ions is extremely important in environmental quality monitoring. However, despite the importance of detecting heavy metals, research on sensor electrode materials for sensing them is still insufficient. In the present study, we suggest functional group introduced carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) using a simple vacuum plasma process. Polypyrrole nanoparticles (PPyNPs) are used as carbon precursors to produce CNPs and various functional groups are introduced following exposure with different gases (NH 3 , C 4 F 8 , and O 2 ) during the vacuum plasma process. Plasma-treated CNPs show fast charge transfer and high sensitivity to the heavy metal ions (Pb 2+ and Cu 2+ ). Particularly, O 2 gas-treated CNPs (O-CNPs) possess an excellent sensing ability as compared to the other treated CNPs. Under optimized conditions, O-CNPs show a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.005 μM for Pb 2+ and 0.01 μM for Cu 2+ . O-CNPs also show a linearity for the detection signal of metal ions over a wide concentration range (0.01–100 μM for Pb 2+ and 0.1–100 μM for Cu 2+ ). • Functionalized CNPs were fabricated by using carbonization of polypyrrole nanoparticles and a facile vacuum plasma process. • Oxygen contained CNPs not only showed low limit of detection for Pb 2+ (0.005 μM) and Cu 2+ (0.01 μM) but also displayed wide detectable concentrations. • CNPs-modified GCEs were established as an electrochemical sensor with selectivity for sensing materials in a mixture of heavy metals.
Published Version
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