A Novel Potentiometric Ni^2+-Sensor based on a Ni^2+ Ion-Imprinted Polymer

A novel ni^2+ ion-imprinted polymer (iip) was synthesized through a precipitation polymerization technique using itaconic acid (as functional monomer) and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (as cross-linking agent). nip was next used to construct a ni^2+ ion-selective membrane electrode through dispersing its particles in a poly (vinyl chloride)(pvc) based membrane plasticized with dibutylphthalate. the electrode revealed a nernstian response of 24.2±0.5 mv decade^-1 to ni^2+ from 1.0×10^-5 to 1.0×10^-1 mol l^-1 and had a lower detection limit of 5.0×10^-6 mol l^-1. a control electrode based on non-imprinted polymer (nip) was also prepared and evaluated, and found to be insensitive to the analyte ions in aqueous media. the satisfactory qualities of the developed iip sensor make it a suitable candidate for the determination of ni^2+ ions.