Synthesis, characterization and application of poly(acrylamide-co-methylenbisacrylamide) nanocomposite as a colorimetric chemosensor for visual detection of trace levels of Hg and Pb ions.

In this study, a new colorimetric chemosensor based on TiO2/poly(acrylamide-co-methylenbisacrylamide) nanocomposites was designed for determination of mercury and lead ions at trace levels in environmental samples. The removal and preconcentration of lead and mercury ions on the sorbent was achieved due to sharing an electron pair of N and O groups of polymer chains with the mentioned heavy metal ions. The hydrogel sensor was designed by surface modification of a synthesized TiO2 nanoparticles using methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilan (MAPTMS), which provided a reactive C=C bond that polymerized the acrylamide and methylenbisacrylamide. The sorbent was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscope (SEM), EDS analysis and Fourier transform in frared (FT-IR) spectrometer. This nanostructured composite with polymer shell was developed as a sensitive and selective sorbent for adsorption of mercury and lead ions from aqueous solution at optimized condition. This method involves two-steps: (1) preconcentration of mercury and lead ions by the synthesized sorbent and (2) its selective monitoring of the target ions by complexation with dithizone (DZ). The color of the sorbent in the absence and presence of mercury and lead ions shifts from white to violet and red, respectively. The detection limit of the synthesized nanochemosensor for mercury and lead ions was 1 and 10 μg L(-1), respectively. The method was successfully applied for trace detection of mercury and lead ions in tap, river, and sea water samples.