Novel nano-engineered environmental sensor based on polymelamine/graphitic-carbon nitride nanohybrid material for sensitive and simultaneous monitoring of toxic heavy metals.

Heavy metal ions (HMIs) pollution is always a serious issue worldwide. Therefore, monitoring HMIs in environmental water is an important and challenging step to ensure environmental health and human safety. In this study, we spotlight an effortless, single-step in-situ electrochemical polymerization deposition technique to fabricate a novel, low-cost, efficient, nano-engineered poly(melamine)/graphitic-carbon nitride nanonetwork (PM/g-CN) modified screen-printed carbon electrode (SPE) for sensitive, selective, and simultaneous electrochemical monitoring of toxic HMIs in environmental waters. g-CN nanomaterial was prepared using melamine as a precursor via pyrolysis technique. As-prepared g-CN and melamine monomer were electrochemically in-situ polymerized/deposited over pre-anodized SPE (ASPE) using cyclic voltammetry technique. XRD, XPS, and SEM were engaged to characterize the developed electrode. The fabricated PM/g-CN/ASPE was applied as an environmental sensor to selective and simultaneous electrochemical detection of Pb and Cd ions using differential pulse voltammetry technique. The developed sensor displayed excellent selectivity and sensitivity towards Pb and Cd with limit of detections of 0.008 µM and 0.02 µM, respectively. The fabricated PM/g-CN/ASPE sensor exhibits superior stability, repeatability, good anti-interference, and applicability for recognition of Pb and Cd ions in real water samples. These results proved that developed environmental sensor is low-cost, efficient, practical platform for rapid, selective, simultaneous monitoring of HMIs in the environment.