am0c05557_si_001.pdf (403.35 kB)
Selective Discrimination of Toxic Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Water by Targeting π‑Stacking Interactions
journal contribution
posted on 2020-05-27, 23:13 authored by Jose Muñoz, Ángel Campos-Lendinez, Núria Crivillers, Marta Mas-TorrentThe development of highly sensitive
and selective devices for rapid
screening of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in water is nowadays
a crucial challenge owing to their alarming abundance in the environment
and adverse health effects. Herein, inspired by the unique π–stacking
interactions taking place between identical small aromatic molecules,
a novel, generic, and straightforward methodology to electrochemically
determine and discriminate such pollutants is described. Such a method
is focused on covalently anchoring different PAHs on an indium tin
oxide electrode surface by means of self-assembled monolayers. The
surface-anchored PAHs act as recognition units to selectivity interact
with a specific PAH target of the same nature. By tailoring the recognition
platform with four different model PAH molecules (naphthalene, anthracene,
pyrene, and fluoranthene) and carrying out an electronic tongue approximation,
the selective discrimination and quantification of the selected PAHs
in aqueous samples at ultralow concentrations were achieved impedimetrically,
which were also validated using a certified reference PAH mixture.