Synthesis and characterization of a highly sensitive and selective electrochemical sensor based on molecularly imprinted polymer with gold nanoparticles modified screen-printed electrode for glycerol determination in wastewater

Glycerol is widely used as humectant in cosmetics to improve skin's smoothness and moisture. However, its level must be controlled in cosmetics at the risk of causing irritation or allergy. Therefore, determining glycerol concentration in environmental waters with more advanced, inexpensive and accurate sensing systems is of great importance. In this work, a fast, simple, portable and cheap molecular imprinted polymer (MIP) approach is used to develop an electrochemical sensor for glycerol determination. The MIP based screen-printed gold electrode (Au-SPE) is prepared by electro-polymerizing Acrylamide/Bisacrylamide (AAM/NNMBA) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in the presence of glycerol as a template. Techniques, such as cyclic voltammetry (CV), differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) are used for electrochemical measurements. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) is utilized to characterize the chemical composition analysis. In contrast to its high response towards glycerol, the electrochemical sensor exhibits negligible responses when exposed to interfering species, such as glycolic acid, glycerol monostearate, tartaric acid, sodium citrate, ammonium sulfate, decyl-glucoside, caprylyl glucoside and glutamic acid. Under optimal experimental conditions, a detection limit (LOD) as low as 0.001 mu g/mL (signal-to-noise ratio S/N = 3) is calculated over a linear concentration range (20.00-227.81 mu g/mL). Interestingly, the sensor was successfully applied to waste-water samples relating to glycerol determination with a relative standard deviation (RSD) less than 4%. Besides, the reproducibility, the working and storage stabilities of the sensor were proven. According to these outcomes, the electrochemical MIP sensor could be viable enough to detect the presence and levels of pollutants in real water samples.