Fabrication and topographical analysis of non-covalently imprinted polymer inclusion membranes for the selective sensing of pinacolyl methylphosphonate—A simulant of Soman

A novel potentiometric sensor based on imprinted polymer inclusion membrane (IPIM) was developed by dispersing pinacolyl methylphosphonate (PMP) imprinted polymer materials synthesized by employing different polymerization approaches, viz. bulk, precipitation and suspension in polyvinyl chloride. The polymer materials and corresponding membranes were characterized topographically using scanning electron microscope. The effect of membrane composition, sensor performance and selectivity were studied and optimized. Such studies show that, the bulk imprinted polymer material was more selective and sensitive (with a detection limit of 4 × 10−8 M [7.2 ppb]) than suspension and precipitation material based IPIM sensors. The feasibility of the developed potentiometric sensor for trace determination of PMP in ground and tap water samples was demonstrated by both direct and standard addition methods.