Double-ion imprinted polymer @magnetic nanoparticles modified screen printed carbon electrode for simultaneous analysis of cerium and gadolinium ions

•Synthesis of a double-ion imprinted polymer for analysis of Ce(IV) and Gd(III).•Imprinted nano-beads were grown on MNPs-modified SPCE surface.•Voltammetric determination of both templates was carried out simultaneously.•Ultra-trace analysis with LOD (ng mL−1) 0.07 for Ce(IV) and 0.19 for Gd(III) is achieved.

A typical, reproducible, and rugged screen printed carbon electrode, modified with dual-ion imprinted beads, was fabricated employing the “surface grafting from” approach. For this, the acyl chloride functionalized magnetic nanoparticles were first immobilized and chemically attached with a typical functional monomer (but-2-enedioic acid bis-[(2-amino-ethyl)-amide]) on the electrode surface. This was subsequently subjected to the thermal polymerization in the presence of template ions (Ce(IV) and Gd(III)), cross-linker (ethylene glycol dimethacrylate), initiator (AIBN), and multiwalled carbon nanotubes. The modified sensor was used for the simultaneous analysis of both template ions in aqueous, blood serum, and waste-water samples, using differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry which revealed two oxidation peaks for respective templates with resolution as much as 950 mV, without any cross reactivity, interferences and false-positives. The detection limits realized by the proposed sensor, under optimized conditions, were found to be as low as 0.07 ng mL−1 for Ce(IV) and 0.19 ng mL−1 for Gd(III) (S/N = 3) that could eventually be helpful for lanthanide estimation at stringent levels.

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