Simultaneous detection of nitrophenol isomers using an easy-to-fabricate thiophene-based microporous polymer film modified electrode

A thiophene-based microporous polymer film modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was simply fabricated via one-step template-free electropolymerization in dichloromethane without any surfactant. The prepared electrode exhibited remarkably increased electrochemical responses for nitrophenol (NP) isomers compared to nonmodified GCE. The phenomenon could be ascribed to the strong intermolecular interactions between electronrich, broad-surface-area thiophene-based conjugated microporous polymer film and electron-poor nitro-analytes. The proposed sensor was systematically characterized for its application in the simultaneous determination of nitrophenol isomers. At optimum conditions, the sensor displayed satisfactory linear ranges: 0.3-10 mu mol L-1, 0.3-12.5 mu mol L-1 and 0.3-15 mu mol L-1 for o, m, p-NP, respectively. Excellent detection limits of 0.04 mu mol L-1 for o-NP, 0.05 mu mol L-1 for m-NP and p-NP were showed. Our results proved that the thiophene-based microporous polymer films obtained by electropolymerization are truly promising in developing electrochemical sensors.