Preparation of magnetic TNT-imprinted polymer nanoparticles and their accumulation onto magnetic carbon paste electrode for TNT determination.

In this study, the TNT-imprinted polymer shell was created on nano-sized Fe3O4 cores in order to construct the nano-sized magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer (nano-MMIP). For this purpose, the surface of the synthesized magnetic nanoparticles was modified with methacrylic acid. The modified particles were then utilized as the core on which the TNT-imprinted polymeric shell was synthesized. The synthesized materials were then characterized by scanning electron microscopy, FT-IR and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The resulting nano-MMIP particles were suspended in TNT solution and then collected on the surface of a carbon paste electrode via a permanent magnet, situated within the CP electrode. The extracted TNT was analyzed on the CP electrode by applying square wave voltammetry (SWV). It was found that the oxidative signal of TNT is much favorable for TNT detection on the resulting magnetic carbon paste electrode. The electrode with nano-MMIP showed distinctly higher signal to TNT, compared to that containing magnetic non-imprinted polymer (MNIP) nanoparticles. All parameters influencing the method performance including extraction pH, extraction time and sorbent amount were evaluated and optimized. The developed method showed a dynamic linear concentration range of 1.0-130.0 nM for TNT measurement. The detection limit of the method was calculated to be 0.5 nM. The method showed appropriate capability for TNT analysis in real water samples.