Amino-thiacalix[4]arene modified screen-printed electrodes as a novel electrochemical interface for Hg(ii) quantification at a pico-molar level

Abstract

A simple amino-thiacalix[4]arene modified graphitic carbon has been prepared by a microwave-irradiation process and employed for the quantification of Hg(II) ions immobilized on screen-printed graphite macroelectrodes (SPEs) as a novel voltammetric sensor. The synthesized molecule has been characterized by FT-IR, ¹H-NMR and XPS. The proposed sensor exhibits linearity in the range of 2–20 pM with a detection limit of (3σ) 1 pM. Furthermore, the modified graphitic material has been used as a sensing platform for the measurement of Hg(II) ions in real sample matrices.