Electrochemical sensor prepared from molecularly imprinted polymer for recognition of 1,3-dinitrobenzene (DNB)

An electrochemical sensor was modified with multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) material synthesized with acrylamide and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) in the presence of 1,3-dinitrobenzene (DNB) as the template molecule. The MWCNT and MIP layers were successively modified on the surface of a glassy carbon electrode (GCE), of which the MIP film works as an artificial receptor due to its specific molecular recognition sites. The MIP material was characterized by FT-IR and electrochemical methods of square wave voltammetry (SWV). The interferences of other nitroaromatic compounds (NAC) such as 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), 1,3,5-trinitrobenzene (TNB) and 2,4-dinitrotoluene (DNT) to DNB were also investigated by the prepared MIP/MWCNT electrode. Compared with other traditional sensors, the MIP/MWCNT modified electrode shows good selectivity and sensitivity. In addition, the current responses to DNB are linear with the concentration ranging from 4.5×10^-8 to 8.5×10^-6 mol/L with the detection limits of 2.5×10^-8 (-0.58 V) and 1.5× 10^-8 mol/L (-0.69 V) (S/N=3). The construction process of MIP/MWCNT modified electrode was also studied as well. All results indicate that the MIP/MWCNT modified electrode established an improving way for simple, fast and selective analysis of DNB.