Research Article
Ahmed Khudhair Hassan
Abstract
In this research, we constructed chemical sensor for determining mercury in contaminated water because we needed fast, simple, low-cost, and accurate determination of mercury in different environmental systems. The constructed membrane composed of (Poly Vinyl Chloride) PVC as a matrix material, 1,5-diphenylthiocarbazone (dithizone) as electro active compound, and di-n-butyl phthalate (DBPH) as a plasticizer. The optimum membrane composition 30% PVC, 65% DBPH, 5% dithizone exhibited the better Nernstian response. The results showed that probe is high stability along the pH range from (3.5 to 8). The electrode displays a linear log [Hg2+] versus Electromotive Force (EMF) response over a wide concentration range of (5×10−6 to 1×10−2M) with Nernstian slope of 29.7 ± 0.5 mV decade-1and limit of detection 3×10−6 M. The proposed sensor shows relatively high selectivity for mercury ion in different matrix solution, other ions had negligible interference effect on the reading.