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A Sensitive Nitrate Ion-Selective Electrode from a Pencil Lead. An Analytical Laboratory Experiment

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Tatyana A. Bendikov and Thomas C. Harmon

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Center for Embedded Networked Sensing, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095

J. Chem. Educ., 2005, 82 (3), p 439

DOI: 10.1021/ed082p439

Publication Date (Web): March 1, 2005

Section:

History, Education, and Documentation

Abstract

Nitrate ion is an important environmental and human health analyte and thus its detection and quantification is considered essential. This article summarizes a simple procedure for preparing and testing a nitrate ion-selective electrode based on doped polypyrrole films. Everyday pencil leads were used as a substrate for the electrochemical deposition of polypyrrole. Nitrate-doped polypyrrole electrodes, tested potentiometrically for their response to varying NO₃^–concentrations, exhibited Nernstian behavior (slopes of 54–55 mV per log cycle of nitrate concentration at T = 22°C), with a linear response to nitrate concentrations spanning three orders of magnitude (0.1–1× 10^–4 M of NO₃^–) and a detection limit of 5 ± 1 × 10^–5 M of nitrate. The procedure outlined here has the potential to initiate and motivate students with interests in sensor development, micro-fabrication procedures, advanced monitoring of environmental problems, and creating solutions to those problems.

Keywords (Audience):

Second-Year Undergraduate

Keywords (Domain):

Environmental Chemistry

Keywords (Feature):

Cost-Effective Teacher

Keywords (Pedagogy):

Hands-On Learning / Manipulatives

Keywords (Subject):

Ion Exchange

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