A molecularly imprinted polymer based on functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes for the electrochemical detection of parathion-methyl

A novel composite of vinyl group functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) was synthesized and applied as a molecular recognition element to construct an electrochemical sensor for parathion-methyl in this paper. The special molecular recognition properties of parathion-methyl mainly dominated by π–π, p–π interaction and hydrogen bonding formed among functional monomer, template and matrix. A series of electrochemical experiment results proved that the prepared material had good adsorption capacity and fast mass transfer rate to parathion-methyl. The good selectivity of the sensor allowed fine discrimination between parathion and paraoxon, which had similar structures to parathion-methyl. The response of the MIPs was linearly proportional to the concentration of parathion-methyl over the range of 2.0 × 10−7 to 1.0 × 10−5 mol L−1 with a lower detection limit of 6.7 × 10−8 mol L−1 (S/N = 3). This sensor was also applied in the detection of parathion-methyl in pear and cucumber with average recoveries of between 94.9% and 106.2% (RSD < 5%) being obtained. The results mentioned above show that the novel electrochemical sensor is an ideal device for the real-time determination of parathion-methyl in real samples.