Ion-selective electrodes for determination of organic ammonium ions: Ways for selectivity control

The influence of the ISE membrane composition on the selectivity for primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary alkylammonium cations, as well as for cations of physiologically active amines, has been investigated. Factors studied include the effect of plasticizer (2-nitrophenyl octyl ether, o-NPOE; dibutyl phthalate, DBP; dinonyl adipate, DNA; tris(2-ethylhexyl) phosphate, TEHP) and ion exchanger (potassium tetrakis(4-chlorophenyl)borate, K(TpClPB); potassium tris(nonyloxy)benzenesulfonate, K(TNOBS)), as well as that of the lipophilic cationic additive (tetradecylammonium nitrate, (TDA)NO(3)) and neutral carrier (dibenzo-18-crown-6) presence in membrane. It has been established that plasticizer nature affects K(i,j)(pot) values both when the target and/or foreign ions have non-ionic polar groups capable of specific interaction with plasticizer, and when the only difference consists in the substitution degree of their ionic groups. K(i,j)(pot) values for quaternary alkylammonium cations over primary-tertiary ones change in the following order: TEHP>DBP approximately DNA>o-NPOE. The highest K(i,j)(pot) value change is achieved for the primary-quaternary alkylammonium cation pair, amounting to 3 and 4.7 orders for membranes containing K(TNOBS) and K(TpClPB) as ion exchangers, respectively. In its turn, the ion exchanger influence on the selectivity depends on plasticizer nature, it being maximal for o-NPOE (about 2 orders) and practically non-existent for TEHP. On the whole, as compared to K(TpClPB)-based ISEs, those based on K(TNOBS) show higher selectivity for primary-tertiary alkylammonium cations over quaternary ones. Incorporation of (TDA)NO(3) into membrane causes further improvement of selectivity for primary-tertiary alkylammonium cations in the case of K(TNOBS) only. The maximal total effect of the ion exchanger and lipophilic ionic additive is observed for ISEs with DNA-plasticized membranes and is over 3 orders. The influence of crown ether on the selectivity also depends significantly upon ion exchanger and plasticizer nature. For ISEs with o-NPOE-plasticized membranes the K(i,j)(pot) value changes can be as great as 3 (ion exchanger K(TNOBS)) and even 4.5 (ion exchanger K(TpClPB)) orders. On the contrary, for ISEs with TEHP-plasticized membranes the crown ether effect on the selectivity is unessential. The results obtained are explained by peculiarities of organic ammonium cations solvating by plasticizer and association of cations with ion exchangers.