Rapid Electrochemical Detection of Heavy Metal Ions Pb2+ and Cd2+ in Petroleum Wastewater

The main heavy metal contaminants in petroleum wastewater are cadmium and lead ions, which have the greatest impact on humans. How to quickly and effectively detect heavy metals in petroleum wastewater is of practical importance. Co3O4 is a transition metal oxide with great potential for development. It has a high conductivity, good cycling stability and is relatively inexpensive to produce. In this work, we synthesized Co3O4 by hydrothermal method and characterized the morphology and structure of Co3O4 by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The synthesized Co3O4 can detect lead ions with high sensitivity after modification of the glassy carbon electrode. In addition, in the presence of lead ions, the proposed sensor can be used to detect cadmium ions at the same time. After optimization of the parameters, the sensor shows excellent detection performance. The proposed sensor has also been successfully used for the detection of cadmium and lead ions in petroleum wastewater.