Fabrication of a Nitrate Selective Electrode for Determination of Nitrate in Fertilizers by Using Flow Injection Analysis System

Abstract

A nitrate ion selective electrode (nitrate-ISE) based on pyrrole modification on a common pencil lead was proposed. The lab-made nitrate-ISE was easily constructed by pyrrole polymerization with nitrate ion as the dopant using cyclic voltammetry. The fabricated nitrate-ISE was then coupled with flow injection analysis (FIA) for an automatic system. The flow potentiometry provided working range of 1x10^-4 to 4x10^-3 mol L^-1 of nitrate and allowed sample throughput up to 50 samples h^-1. Linear regression analysis showed good agreement (r²=0.9961) with Nernstian response. This system was applied to determine nitrate-nitrogen (nitrate-N) in fertilizer samples.