Development of an imprinted polymeric sensor with dual sensing property for trace level estimation of zinc and arginine Ekta Roy a , Santanu Patra a , Rashmi Madhuri a, ⁎, Prashant K. Sharma b a Department of Applied Chemistry, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, Jharkhand 826 004, India b Department of Applied Physics, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, Jharkhand 826 004, India abstract article info Article history: Received 28 July 2014 Received in revised form 28 October 2014 Accepted 17 December 2014 Available online 19 December 2014 Keywords: Multi-template imprinting Zn 2+ Arginine Biocompatible Multi-walled carbon nanotubes Electrochemical sensor Using virtuousness of multi-template imprinting and selectivity of single-template imprinting, for the first time, we have prepared an imprinted polymer matrix that can detect two target analyte viz., Zn 2+ and arginine in sin- gle motif. For the preparation of imprinted polymer network, a new monomer {2-acrylamido-4-(methylthio) butanoic acid} was synthesized, which gives a biocompatible polymer network. Herein, the synthesized imprinted polymer mixed with multi-walled carbon nanotubes was immobilized onto the surface of platinum electrode to develop an electrochemical sensor for quantitative recognition of Zn 2+ and arginine using differen- tial pulse voltammetry. Cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and chronocoulometric analysis were also performed to study the kinetics of zinc–arginine complex. Under the optimal conditions the linear range of the calibration curve for Zn 2+ and arginine was 0.04–310.0 ng mL -1 and 0.04–235.0 ng mL -1 , with the detection limit of 18.0 and 15.0 pg mL -1 . The sensor has been successfully applied to the determination of Zn 2+ and arginine in water, food, and pharmaceutical samples and achieved high sensitivity and selectivity. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Molecular imprinting technology offers the possibility of producing ligand selective recognition sites in synthetic polymers. Generally, syn- thesis of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were carried out by polymerization of one or more than one monomers in the presence of a template and cross-linker, followed by removal of the template to leave a binding cavity with selectivity to the template molecule [1]. If, a single template molecule is used to create the specific binding site in the polymer matrix is called as single template imprinting. However, the imprinting process is not limited to a single template, and several compounds can be imprinted simultaneously i.e., known as multi- template imprinting [2,3]. Multi-template imprinting have several ad- vantage over single template imprinting like, several different classes of compounds can be extracted, separated, assayed, detected, or other- wise analyzed at a single time. However, several disadvantages are also available resulting in less-popularity of multi-imprinting viz., template leakage and poor binding capability [4]. Keeping together the virtuous- ness of multi-template imprinting and specificity of single template imprinting, for the first time, we have reported a single template- imprinted polymer, which can able to detect two target molecules si- multaneously. Herein, zinc–arginine complex was used as template molecule, but the complex-imprinted polymer (CIP) can detect both zinc and arginine at ultra trace level. Zinc metal ion is an antioxidant and active element in the cons- titution of approximately sixty enzymes, has an important role in: maintaining vision, protein metabolism, activity of the pancreas, stimu- lation of assimilation of vitamins, training leukocytes, immune activa- tion, favoring nucleic acid synthesis, and repair processes [5,6]. Zinc can be considered as one of the most important trace elements because of its involvement in the construction and manufacturing of cellular mechanisms. Along with its good behavior, zinc is also a very popular el- ement owed to its hazardous effects, which affect the environment as well as human life [7]. Recently, the use of toxic metals such as zinc, nickel, lead and mercury has been prohibited in many industrial fields as environmental protective regulations (viz., Restriction of hazardous substances and End of Life Vehicle) and extensively applied worldwide. As zinc is one of widely used metals and very frequently found in water (waste water, drinking water, and tap water), we have taken it as a one of target analyte. Although, the direct analysis of trace elements in food samples or water sample is still a difficult task, not only because of the low concentration of trace elements, but also because of the complex matrix which interferes with their determination. Thus, the variety of pre-treatment techniques, such as solid phase extraction [8], solvent ex- traction and co-precipitation [9] prior to instrumental measurements has been exploited to achieve accurate and reliable results. Among the various methods, atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) [10], atomic emission spectrometry (AES) [11] and mass spectrometry (MS) [12] are commonly used for the determination of heavy metal ions. Howev- er, these techniques have some disadvantages, such as complicated op- eration, high cost of maintenance, expensive apparatus, and require Materials Science and Engineering C 49 (2015) 25–33 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: rshmmadhuri@gmail.com (R. Madhuri). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msec.2014.12.066 0928-4931/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Materials Science and Engineering C journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/msec