A Novel Screen-Printed and Carbon Paste Electrodes for Potentiometric Determination of Uranyl(II) Ion in Spiked Water Samples

Four new ion-selective electrodes (ISEs) based on poly-(1-4)-2-amino-2-deoxy-β-D-glucan (chitosan) ionophore were constructed for determination of uranyl ion (UO₂(II)) over wide concentration ranges. The linear concentration range for carbon paste electrodes (CPEs) was 1 × 10^–6–1 × 10^–2 mol/L with a detection limit of 1 × 10^–6 mol/L and that for the screen-printed electrode (SPEs) was 1 × 10^–5–1 × 10^–1 mol/L with a detection limit of 8 × 10^–6 mol/L. The slopes of the calibration graphs were 29.90 ± 0.40 and 29.10 ± 0.60 mV/decade for CPEs with dibutylphthalate (DBP) (electrode I) and o-nitrophenyloctylether (o-NPOE) (electrode II) as plasticizers, respectively. Also, the SPEs showed good potentiometric slopes of 29.70 ± 0.30 and 28.20 ± 1.20 mV/decade with DBP (electrode III) and o-NPOE (electrode IV), respectively. The electrodes showed stable and reproducible potential over a period of 54, 62, 101 and 115 days for electrodes I, II, III, and IV, respectively. The electrodes manifested advantages of low resistance, very fast response and, most importantly, good selectivities relative to a wide variety of other cations except Ce(III) ion which interfere seriously. The results obtained compared well with those obtained using atomic absorption spectrometry.