The Korean Society of Surface Science and Engineering

In this work, we synthesized a novel electrochemical sensing materials based on tetracarboxylic copper phthalocyanine (TcCuPtc) conjugated PANI (TcCuPtc@PANI). The synthesized materials were employed to modify the screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) for the selective sensing of 4-nitrophenol. The TcCuPtc was conjugated with conducting polymer of PANI through the electrostatic interaction and π-π electron conjugation, the polymer film of PANI to inhibit the leakage of TcCuPtc from the surface of the electrode. The prepared TcCuPtc@PANI were characterized and confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with EDX, ATR-IR, UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, and differential pulse voltammetry techniques. The prepared TcCuPtc@PANI/SPCE showed an excellent electrocatalytic sensing of 4-NP in the linear concentrations from 3 to 500 nM with a LOD of 0.03 nM and a sensitivity of 8.8294 µA/nM cm-2. However, the prepared TcCuPtc@PANI/SPCE showed selective sensing of 4-NP in the presence of other interfering species. The practical applicability of the TcCuPtc@PANI/SPCE was employed for the sensing of 4-NP in different water samples by standard addition method and showed satisfactory recovery results.

Keywords Tetracarboxylic copper phthalocyanine; PANI; 4-nitrophenol; electrochemical sensing; water samples.