Sensitive and Selective Electrochemical Sensor Based on Molecularly Imprinted Polypyrrole Hybrid Nanocomposites for Tetrabromobisphenol A Detection

Abstract

A sensitive and selective electrochemical sensor based on electropolymerized molecularly imprinted polypyrrole and gold nanoparticles–multiwalled carbon nanotubes (AuNPs–MWCNTs) hybrid nanocomposites was developed for the determination of tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA). A glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was modified with MWCNTs, and the AuNPs–MWCNTs/GCE was prepared by an electrodeposition method in HAuCl₄ solution. The AuNPs–MWCNTs nanocomposite showed high electrocatalytic activity, good conductivity, and sufficient reactive sites for the direct electro-oxidation of TBBPA. The molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) as recognition elements were synthesized through in situ electro-polymerization of pyrrole as functional monomers in the presence of the TBBPA template molecules. Under the optimal conditions, the developed sensor exhibited good selectivity towards TBBPA compared with structural analogs, high sensitivity, and excellent producibility. The electrochemical responses of the sensor toward TBBPA were obtained in the linear range from 0.5 nM to 1 μM with a limit of detection equal to 0.24 nM at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3.

Keywords:

• Cyclic voltammetry
• differential pulse voltammetry
• electrochemical impedance spectroscopy
• gold nanoparticles
• molecularly imprinted polymer
• multiwalled carbon nanotubes
• tetrabromobisphenol A

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21707014), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. DUT18JC33), and the Open Foundation of Key Laboratory of Industrial Ecology and Environmental Engineering, MOE (Grant No. KLIEEE-16-10).