Preparation of Pb(II) Ion Imprinted Polymer and Its Application as the Interface of an Electrochemical Sensor for Trace Lead Determination

An ion imprinted polymer (IIP) was synthesized by using Pb(II) as a template, methacrylic acid as a monomer, 8-hydoxyquinoline as a ligand, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as a crosslinker, and azobisisobutyronitrile as initiator. It can be applied to prepare lead ion selective voltammetric sensor for Pb(II) adsorption and trace detection. The Pb(II)-IIP was characterized by FTIR spectra and SEM image. Under optimized conditions of polymerization, the Pb(II)-IIP showed good adsorption behavior toward Pb(II), with a magnitude of three times higher than that of the non imprinted polymer (NIP). Also, it exhibited a favorable selectivity for Pb(II), compared with other heavy metal ions of Hg(II), Cd(II), Cu(II), and a negligible adsorption to the other cations. The synthesized IIP was used to determine trace levels of Pb(II) in food and water samples, with a calibration linear range over Pb(II) concentrations of 0.05 - 60 μM and a limit of detection at 0.01 μM.