Selective QCM sensor based on atrazine imprinted polymer: Its application to wastewater sample

• Atrazine-imprinted QCM sensor is developed for the sensitive detection of atrazine.
• Atrazine-imprinted [p(HEMA-phenol)] film is characterized by several methods.
• Atrazine-imprinted QCM sensor is sensitive and selective in analysis of pesticide.
• Atrazine-imprinted QCM sensor offers the important advantages in wastewater.

Atrazine has become one of the most widely used herbicides which are mainly applied to control broad leaf plants and grassy weeds in the world. Because of its common use has led to the release of atrazine into sediments, wastewater and water sources. The presence of atrazine in wastewaters and water sources may affect ecosystem and human health due to its chronicle toxicity to aquatic organisms. In present study, a sensitive molecular imprinted quartz crystal microbalance sensor was prepared by fabricating a self-assembling monolayer formation of allylmercaptane on gold chip surface for selective determination of atrazine in wastewater. The non-modified and improved surfaces were characterized by using contact angle, Fourier atomic force microscopy and transform infrared spectroscopy. The imprinted quartz crystal microbalance sensor was found to be sensitive, linear, certain, and proper. The linearity range was obtained as 0.08–1.5 nM. The detection limit of the prepared material was calculated as 0.028 nM. The developed quartz crystal microbalance sensor was successfully used to examine wastewater sample. Furthermore, the stability and repeatability of the prepared quartz crystal microbalance sensor were studied. The spectacular long-term stability and repeatability of the prepared atrazine-imprinted quartz crystal microbalance sensor make them intriguing in sensors studies and applications.

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