Exploration of MnO <inf>2</inf>/carbon composites and their application to simultaneous electroanalytical determination of Pb(II) and Cd(II)

Abstract

We report preparation of MnO 2 composites with carbon (Vulcan, graphite, and carbonized nanostructured polyaniline 5-sulfosalicylate) via hydrothermal and low-temperature wet impregnation procedure. All prepared composites were characterized using thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and conductivity measurements, and their characteristics compared. Furthermore, novel micro/nanostructured manganese dioxide/carbon composite based electrodes were tested for simultaneous determination of Pb 2+ and Cd 2+ as model analytes by anodic stripping voltammetry. The oxidation of the targeted heavy metals at the investigated composite electrodes gave distinctive and well separated peaks with lowest detection limits of 27 nM for Pb 2+ and 52 nM for Cd 2+ ions obtained with hydrothermally prepared MnO 2/ graphite composite based electrode. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.