Electrochemical fabrication of molecularly imprinted porous silicate film electrode for fast and selective response of methyl parathion

A methyl parathion-templated molecularly imprinted porous silicate thin film was electrodeposited onto a glassy carbon electrode using tetraethylorthosilicate sol as the silicon precursor and vinyltriethoxysilane as the functional monomer. The surface morphology and crystallinity of the imprinted film were characterized by scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffraction. The binding performance of the film with methyl parathion was examined with voltammetric techniques. The results show that the imprinted sol–gel film gives fast, sensitive and selective response to methyl parathion. The good selectivity of the film allows fine discriminations of methyl parathion from interferants, which including parathion, α-hydroxyl-4-nitrophenyl-dimethyl-phosphonate, p-nitrophenol and nitrobenzene. A linear range for methyl parathion determination was found from 1.0 × 10−8 to 1.0 × 10−5 mol l−1 with an estimated detection limit of 8.9 × 10−9 mol l−1 (S/N = 3). This imprinted sol–gel film electrode was proved to be a versatile sensing tool for the selective detection of methyl parathion in real samples.