Sustainable and reusable probe-encapsulated porous poly(AMST-co-TRIM) monolithic sensor for the selective and ultra-sensitive detection of toxic cadmium(II) from industrial/environmental wastewater

Prabhakaran Srinivasan; Sushmitha P Sivaraman; Deepan Kumar Madhu; Pratiksha Sengupta; Bhargavi Kattela; Sivaraman Nagarajan; Akhila Maheswari Mohan; Prabhakaran Deivasigamani

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.133960

Sustainable and reusable probe-encapsulated porous poly(AMST-co-TRIM) monolithic sensor for the selective and ultra-sensitive detection of toxic cadmium(II) from industrial/environmental wastewater

J Hazard Mater. 2024 May 5:469:133960. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.133960. Epub 2024 Mar 6.

Authors

Prabhakaran Srinivasan¹, Sushmitha P Sivaraman¹, Deepan Kumar Madhu², Pratiksha Sengupta¹, Bhargavi Kattela¹, Sivaraman Nagarajan³, Akhila Maheswari Mohan⁴, Prabhakaran Deivasigamani⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, School of Advanced Sciences, Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Vellore, Tamil Nadu 632014, India.
² Department of Chemistry, K. Ramakrishnan College of Technology, Samayapuram, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu 621112, India.
³ Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI), Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu 603102, India.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, School of Advanced Sciences, Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Vellore, Tamil Nadu 632014, India. Electronic address: akhila.maheswari@vit.ac.in.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, School of Advanced Sciences, Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Vellore, Tamil Nadu 632014, India. Electronic address: prabhakaran.d@vit.ac.in.

PMID: 38492387
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.133960

Abstract

This study focuses on a new type of fast responsive solid-state visual colorimetric sensor, custom engineered with dual-entwined porous polymer imbued with chromoionophoric 4-(sec-butyl)- 2-((5-mercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-yl)diazenyl)phenol (SMDP) probe for selective and ultra-sensitive colorimetric sensing of Cd(II). The polymer monolith, i.e., poly(aminostyrene-co-trimethylolpropanetrimethacrylate) denoted as poly(AMST-co-TRIM), is designed through a stoichiometric blending of monomer, crosslinker, and porogens leading to superior surface area, pore and adsorption properties for the voluminous incorporation of SMDP probe for target specific ion sensing. The porosity, surface and structural characteristics of the poly(AMST-co-TRIM)monolith and poly(AMST-co-TRIM)SMDP sensor are investigated using p-XRD, XPS, TG-DTA, FT-IR, BET/BJH, FE-SEM, HR-TEM, EDAX, and SAED techniques. The poly(AMST-co-TRIM)SMDP sensor reveals a frozen geometrical orientation of SMDP molecules to bind selectively with Cd(II), forming stable charge-transfer complexes by exhibiting transitional visible color shifts from light yellow to dark green (λ_max 608 nm). The sensor imposes a linear response from 0-200 ppb, with quantification and detection limits of 0.95 and 0.28 ppb. The fabricated sensor material is cost-effective and versatile in its solid-state naked-eye sensing, with excellent reusability. The sensor performance has been verified using various environmentally contaminated water and commercial cigarette samples, with a recovery of ≥ 99.12% and an RSD of ≤ 1.95%, thus reflecting exceptional data reproducibility/reliability.

Keywords: Cadmium; Colorimetric sensor; Meso-/Macro-channels; Porous polymer monoliths; Receptor.