Development of a polymeric test kit based on the release of a selective chemosensor for the quantitative analysis of Cu(II) in aqueous samples

Abstract

The development of a test kit for selective Cu(II) sensing in water samples was carried out. The kit system consisted in a polymeric film based in a carboxymethylcellulose hydrogel that contains silica coated chemosensor particles dispersed in its matrix. In this work, the film composition was optimized and its analytical evaluation by quantifying Cu(II) was compared against the free sensor. The characterization results showed that the chemosensor physically immobilized into silica particles can be uniformly dispersed in the carboxymethylcellulose film, with an excellent analytical performance to quantify Cu(II) in a range from 0.37 to 1.73 ppm. The detection limit of Cu(II) was 0.13 ppm. This method was successfully validated and the kit application to real water samples gave excellent results, suggesting that the film kit is simple, quick and effective to detect Cu(II) in this medium.