Polyamidoamine dendrimer functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles for simultaneous electrochemical detection of Pb2+ and Cd2+ ions in environmental waters

[Display omitted] •Simultaneous detection of Pb2+ and Cd2+ in water matrix by Fe3O4@G2-PAD/MCPE was investigated.•Dendritic macromolecule is used as a chelating agent in stripping analysis of heavy metal ions.•The proposed sensor shows well-defined stripping peaks and broad linear ranges. In the present study, second-generation polyamidoamine dendrimer functionalized magnetic nanoparticles (Fe3O4@G2-PAD) were synthesized and applied for the measuring of Pb2+ and Cd2+ ions in environmental waters. The square wave anodic stripping voltammetry (SWASV) was applied for simultaneous determination of analyte cations after closed-circuit mode. The influence of experimental variables on the performance of the modified magnetic electrode was investigated and optimized. Under optimum conditions, the resulting sensor depicted a linear response to Pb2+ and Cd2+ over a concentration range from 0.5 to 80 ng mL−1. Low detection limits of 0.17 ng mL−1 for Pb2+ and 0.21 ng mL−1 for Cd2+ were obtained following 140 s accumulation time, which are well below than the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline (3 ng mL−1 for cadmium and 10 ng mL−1 for lead) in drinking water. The prepared sensor was successfully applied to the detection of Pb2+ and Cd2+ in the presence of some potentially interfering ions. In addition, the electrochemical sensor was employed for the determination of both heavy metal ions in the real water samples (river water, wastewater and lake water) and the obtained results were satisfactory compared with graphite furnace atomic absorptions spectrometry (GF-AAS) protocol.