Piezoelectric quartz crystal sensor for surfactant based on molecularly imprinted polypyrrole

A piezoelelectric quartz crystal sensor for sodium dodecyl sulfate was developed based on molecularly imprinted polypyrrole. The polypyrrole membrane was deposited onto one side of the electrode of the quartz crystal by galvanostatic polymerization, and molecular imprinting was achieved by incorporating SDS in the electrolysis reaction mixture. The electropolymerization parameters were optimized to produce a sensor with high sensitivity and high response. The sensor exhibited a linear response in a buffered solution in the concentration range 10−8 to 10−4 M SDS, with a sensitivity of 283.78 Hz/log M and a correlation coefficient of 0.9790. Its favorable performance in measuring SDS in river water samples was demonstrated.