Electrochemical sensor for picric acid by using molecularly imprinted polymer and reduced graphene oxide modified pencil graphite electrode

Here we report an electrochemical sensor for the determination of picric acid (PA) based on molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) coated pencil graphite electrode (PGE). Pyrrole (Py) was electropolymerized on the surface of rGO modified PGE, where PA was used as the template. After the extraction of PA molecules from the polymer matrix, MIP|rGO|PGE was obtained. Computational studies were carried out to predict the possible molecular interactions between template and polymer. The electrode modifications were characterized by various electrochemical and surface imaging techniques. The MIP|rGO|PGE shows linear response over PA concentration on differential pulse voltammetric (DPV) analysis with good reproducibility. MIP|rGO|PGE has significant mechanical stability with detection limits of 1.4 μM. The proposed sensor was applied to quantify the PA level present in the soil and water as real analytical samples successfully.