Sulfamethoxazole-Imprinted Polymeric Receptor as Ionophore for Potentiometric Transduction

This work proposes a new biomimetic sensor material for sulfamethoxazole. It is prepared by means of radical polymerization, having ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as a cross-linker, 2,2'-azobisisobutyronitrile as radical initiator, methacrylic acid as a functional monomer and acetonitrile as porogenic solvent. Sulfamethoxazole sensor with 10.9% of imprinted particles showed the best response in terms of slope (58.3 mV/decade) and detection limit (6.3 x 10(-8) mol L-1). This electrode displayed also a good selectivity towards the sulfonamide antibiotics, glucose, calcium, ammonium, nickel, sodium and zinc. The sensor was not affected by pH <2.2 and pH>6. The electrode was successfully applied to the analysis of food and biological samples.