Low cost, highly sensitive and selective electrochemical detection of arsenic (III) using silane grafted based nanocomposite

Novel silane grafted bentonite was obtained using the natural bentonite as precursor material. The material which is termed as nanocomposite was characterized by the Fourier Transform Infra-red (FT-IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods. The surface imaging and elemental mapping was performed using Scanning Electron Microscopic (SEM/EDX) technique. The electroanalytical studies were performed using the nanocomposite electrode. The electroactive surface area of nanocomposite electrode was significantly increased than the pristine bentonite or bare carbon paste based working electrode. The impedance spectroscopic studies were conducted to simulate the equivalent circuit and Nyquist plots were drawn for the carbon paste electrode and nanocomposite electrodes. A single step oxidation/reduction process occurred for As(III) having ΔE value 0.36 V at pH 2.0. The anodic stripping voltammetry was performed for concentration dependence studies of As(III) (0.5 to 20.0 μg/L) and reasonably a good linear relationship was obtained. The detection limit of the As(III) detection was calculated as 0.00360±0.00002 μg/L having with observed relative standard deviations (RSD) less than 4%. The presence of several cations and anions has not affected the detection of As(III) however, the presence of Cu(II) and Mn(II) affected the detection of As(III). The selectivity of As(III) was achieved using the Tlawng river water sample spiked with As(III).