Modified Screen-Printed Electrode for Potentiometric Determination of Copper(II) in Water Samples

Modified screen printed (SPE) and carbon paste electrodes (CPE) with phenanthroline–tetraphenyl borate ionophore [Phen:TPB] were fabricated for the determination of copper(II). The modified electrodes have linear responses over a wide concentration range (1 × 10−6–1 × 10−2 mol·L−1) of copper(II) ion at 25 °C with divalent cationic slopes of 29.85 ± 0.58 and 29.45 ± 0.81 mV·decade−1 and exhibit a detection limit of 1 × 10−6 mol·L−1 for SPE and CPE. The selectivity coefficient was measured using the match potential method in acetate buffer of pH = 4.2. The modified SPE and CPE sensors show high selectivity and sensitivity for determination of copper(II) and also show stable and reproducible response over a period of five and three months for SPE and CPE sensors, respectively. This method can be used for determination of copper(II) in water, soil, plant and fish tissue samples and the results obtained agreed with those obtained with atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS).