Study of carbon nanotube-rich impedimetric recognition electrode for ultra-low determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in water

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been studied as an electrochemical recognition element for the impedimetric determination of priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in water, using hexocyanoferrate as a redox probe. For this goal, an indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode functionalized with a silane-based self-assembled monolayer carrying CNTs has been engineered. The electroanalytical method, which is similar to an antibody-antigen assay, is straightforward and exploits the high CNT–PAH affinity obtained via π–interactions. After optimizing the experimental conditions, the resulting CNT-based impedimetric recognition platform exhibits ultra-low detection limits (1.75 ± 0.04 ng·L −1 ) for the sum of PAHs tested, which was also validated by using a certified reference PAH mixture. Graphical abstract Schematic of an indium-tin-oxide (ITO) electrode functionalized with a silane-based self-assembled monolayer carrying carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as a recognition platform for the ultra-low determination of total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in water via π–interactions using Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS).