A new chemically modified carbon paste electrode was constructed and used for rapid, simple, accurate, selective and highly sensitive simultaneous determination of cadmium, copper and mercury using square wave anodic stripping voltammetry (SWASV). The carbon paste electrode was modified by N,N'-bis(3-(2-thenylidenimino)propyl)piperazine coated silica nanoparticles. Compared with carbon paste electrode, the stripping peak currents had a significant increase at the modified electrode. Under the optimized conditions (deposition potential, -1.100 V vs. Ag/AgCl; deposition time, 60s; resting time, 10s; SW frequency, 25 Hz; pulse amplitude, 0.15 V; dc voltage step height, 4.4 mV), the detection limit was 0.3, 0.1 and 0.05 ng mL(-1) for the determination of Cd(2+), Cu(2+) and Hg(2+), respectively. The complexation reaction of the ligand with several metal cations in methanol was studied and the stability constants of the complexes were obtained. The effects of different cations and anions on the simultaneous determination of metal ions were studied and it was found that the electrode is highly selective for the simultaneous determination of Cd(2+), Cu(2+) and Hg(2+). Furthermore, the present method was applied to the determination of Cd(2+), Cu(2+) and Hg(2+) in water and some foodstuff samples.
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