Surfactant-assisted graphene oxide/methylaniline nanocomposites for lead ionic sensor development for the environmental remediation in real sample matrices.

Graphene oxide/methylaniline (GO/MA) nanocomposites (NCs) were synthesized by an in situ inverse microemulsion polymerization method. The characterization of nanocomposites is done by scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) methods. In addition, an efficient chemical sensor probe was fabricated with flat glassy carbon electrode (GCE) by coating with thin layer of synthesized GO/MA NCs. Then the sensor was applied for the selective detection of lead (Pb⁺²) ion in an aqueous phase. The sensor performance such as sensitivity (20.56 µA mM⁻¹ cm⁻²) was calculated from the slope of the calibration curve. The linear dynamic range (LDR: 0.1 nM–0.01 M) was calculated on the maximum linearity line from the calibration plot. The detection limit (DL: 50.0 ± 2.5 pM) was also calculated from the slope of the calibration plot by considering of 3 N/S (signal-to-noise ratio of 3). This novel electrochemical approach introduced a reliable and efficient route to detect the heavy metal ions as selective sensor for the safety of medical, biochemical and environmental fields in broad scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]