A novel electrochemical 4-nonyl-phenol sensor based on molecularly imprinted poly (o-phenylenediamine-co-o-toluidine)-nitrogen-doped graphene nanoribbons-ionic liquid composite film

A novel electrochemical sensor was presented for the determination of 4-nonyl-phenol (NP), which was constructed by molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP), nitrogen-doped graphene nanoribbons (NGNRs) and ionic liquid (IL). The NGNRs were prepared by unzipping multiwalled carbon nanotubes, followed by hydrothermal treatment with ammonium-NaOH solution. The MIP was prepared by electropolymerization at the NGNRs-IL composite film modified electrode, using NP as template, o-phenylenediamine and o-toluidine as copolymerization monomers. The resulting sensor MIP/NGNRs-IL/GCE showed good performance. Under the optimized conditions, the peak current was linear to NP concentration in the range from 0.04 to 6 mu M. The sensitivity and detection limit were 3.4 mu A/mu M and 8 mu M (S/N = 3), respectively. The electrochemical sensor was applied to the determination of NP in real samples and satisfactory results were obtained. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.