Nano-TiO2/dihexadecylphosphate based electrochemical sensor for sensitive determination of pentachlorophenol

An electrochemical sensor for sensitive and convenient determination of pentachlorophenol (PCP) was developed based on the nano-TiO2-dihexadecylphosphate (DHP) film thin film-modified electrode. Owing to the unique properties of nano-TiO2 such as huge surface area, strong adsorptive ability, subtle electronic properties and catalytic ability, the electrochemical oxidation signal of PCP significantly increases at the nano-TiO2/DHP-based electrochemical sensor, suggesting that nano-TiO2 film exhibits obvious enhancement effect to the determination of PCP. Based on this, a sensitive and convenient electrochemical method was developed for the determination of PCP. The linear range is over the range from 5.0 × 10−8 mol L−1 to 7.5 × 10−6 mol L−1 and from 1.5 × 10−6 mol L−1 to 1.0 × 10−4 mol L−1 with a limit of detection of 1 × 10−8 mol L−1. Finally, this sensor was successfully employed to detect PCP in water samples.