An electrochemical sensor modified with a molecularly imprinted polymer and carbon black for 17-β-estradiol detection.

The purpose of this work was to apply an electrochemical sensor modified with a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) and carbon black (CB) for 17β-estradiol (E2) detection in river water samples. The synthesized MIP was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).The modification of the electrode with the MIP and CB contributed to increased sensitivity, an increase of over 173% in relation to that of the bare electrode. The experimental parameters, amount of modifiers, pH and possible interfering species were evaluated. The method showed linearity from 0.10 to 23.0 μmol L-1 and detection and quantification limits of 0.03 and 0.10 μmol L-1, respectively. The application of the developed sensor was considered simple, resulting in a fast, low operating cost method, with recovery values between 103 and 105%.