Rapid cyanide detection using a polymer sensor: Analysis of environmental samples

Abstract

The participation of anions in chemical processes and biological systems is inevitable. While some anions, such as sulfate and phosphate, are essential for biological function, cyanide exposure is highly toxic to living organisms. Therefore, simple, accessible, and accurate determination strategies for the selective specification of cyanide ions (CN-) are essential for many disciplines. In the presented paper, a novel polymeric membrane sensor for the spectrofluorimetric detection of CN- in environmental samples was created via radical polymerization. Several spectroscopic and microscopic methods characterize the new sensor system's structure. Standardization and optimization of the developed membrane sensor were carried out, and various parameters such as sensitivity, selectivity, calibration interval, pH, and detection limit required for the determination were systematically investigated. The excitation wavelength of the developed polymeric membrane sensor was 309 nm, and the emission wavelength was 394 nm. The response time was 50 s in studies conducted at pH 9.0. Under optimized conditions, the presented sensing procedure was successfully used to determine CN- ions in the wide linear working range (1.15 x 10- 7-9.61 x 10- 7 mol L- 1). Cyanide ions' detection limit (LOD) was 7.19 x 10- 8 mol L- 1, well below the World Health Organization (WHO) drinking water standard. The developed sensor with high sensitivity and selectivity enabled the detection of CN- ions in landfill leachate and well water samples with % RSD of 1.14 % and 1.23 %, respectively.