Thiol surfactant assembled on gold nanoparticles ion exchanger for screen-printed electrode fabrication. Potentiometric determination of Ce(III) in environmental polluted samples

A new modified screen-printed electrode (SPE) based on a recently synthesized ligand 1,4-bis-(8-mercaptooctyloxy)-benzene (I), self-assembled to gold nanoparticles (GNP) as suitable carrier for Ce(III) ion determination with potentiometric method is described. The proposed potentiometric method was based on the fabrication of modified gold nanoparticles-screen-printed (GNPs-SPE) and modified screen-printed (MSPE) sensors. These potentiometric sensors respond to Ce(III) ions in the wide linear range of 3.25 × 10−10 to 1.0 × 10−1 and 1.0 × 10−7 to 1.0 × 10−2 mol L−1 with Nernstian slopes of 19.95 ± 0.97 and 17.04 ± 1.02 mV decade−1 for GNPs-SPE and MSPE, respectively. The detection limit of 3.25 × 10−10 and 9.5 × 10−8 mol L−1 was obtained at pH range 2.8–8.5 and 3.5–7.5 for GNPs-SPE and MSPE, respectively. It has a fast response with response time of about 4 and 7 s, and can be used for at least 7 and 5 months without any considerable divergences in the potentials for GNPs-SPE and MSPE, respectively. Such abilities promote new opportunities for determining Ce(III) ions in a wide range of real samples. The results obtained compared well with those obtained using inductively coupled plasma atomic absorption spectrometry (ICP-AES).