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Fabrication of target specific solid-state optical sensors using chromoionophoric probe–integrated porous monolithic polymer and silica templates for cobalt ions

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Abstract

The article demonstrates the design of two solid-state sensors for the capturing of industrially relevant ultra-trace Co(II) ions using porous monolithic silica and polymer templates. The mesoporous silica reveals high surface area and voluminous pore dimensions that ensures homogeneous anchoring of 4-((5-(allylthio)-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-yl)diazenyl)benzene-1,3-diol, as the chromoionophore. We report a first of its kind solid-state macro-/meso-porous polymer monolithic optical sensor from a monomeric chromoionophore, i.e., 2-(4-butylphenyl)diazenyl)-2-hydroxybenzylidene)hydrazine-1-carbothioamide. The monolithic solid-state sensors are characterized using HR-TEM-SAED, FE-SEM-EDAX, p-XRD, XPS, 29Si/13C CPMAS NMR, FT-IR, TGA, and BET/BJH analysis. The electron microscopic images reveal a highly ordered hexagonal mesoporous network of honeycomb pattern for silica monolith, and a long-range macroporous framework with mesoporous channels for polymer monolith. The sensors offer exclusive ion-selectivity and sensitivity for trace cobalt ions, through a concentration proportionate visual color transition, with a response kinetics of ≤ 5 min. The optimization of ion-sensing performance reveals an excellent detection limit of 0.29 and 0.15 ppb for Co(II), using silica- and polymer-based monolithic sensors, respectively. The proposed sensors are tested with industrial wastewater and spent Li-ion batteries, which reveals a superior cobalt ion capturing efficiency of ≥ 99.2% (RSD: ≤ 2.07%).

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Sri Sai Company for providing the scrap Li-ion battery and also CVR Labs for sample analysis.

Funding

This study was financially supported by SERB (SB/FT/CS-051/2014), and VIT (Institute Seed Grant 2019).

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  1. Department of Chemistry, School of Advanced Sciences, Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Vellore, Tamil Nadu, 632014, India

    Naveen Kumar Sompalli & Prabhakaran Deivasigamani

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  1. Naveen Kumar Sompalli
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Correspondence to Prabhakaran Deivasigamani.

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Sompalli, N.K., Deivasigamani, P. Fabrication of target specific solid-state optical sensors using chromoionophoric probe–integrated porous monolithic polymer and silica templates for cobalt ions. Anal Bioanal Chem 413, 3177–3191 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-021-03255-1

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