Novel Zn-based metal coordination polymer for ultrafast capture and electrochemical sensing of Hg(Ⅱ)

The electrochemical sensor shows great promise in the detection of trace Hg(Ⅱ), of which the performance could be significantly enhanced by the functionalized material with the merits of effective and ultrafast capture for Hg(Ⅱ). In this study, the novel metal coordination polymers (MCPs) was synthesized by the 2-thio-barbituric acid as the organic ligand to modify the electrochemical sensor to address this issue. The as-prepared material was composed of regular flakes with a polyhedral and well-defined crystal structure, the successful loading of the abundant sulfurous group (7.49 % of the total mass) endowed the Zn-TBA with the capability to efficiently uptake (97.4–99.9 %) Hg(Ⅱ) at 500 mg/L under a wider pHs as well as the high content of coexisting cations and anions, highlighted the excellent capacity, strong environmental adaptability, and selectivity. Notably, the superfast mass transfer was revealed in the adsorption kinetics test, in which the Hg(Ⅱ) content was effectively reduced from 50 mg/L to 14 μg/L within 20 s to meet the national emission standards. Based on this, Zn-TBA modified the carbon cloth (Zn-TBA/CC) and the glass carbon electrode (Zn-TBA/GCE) was prepared, thereinto, the current response of Zn-TBA/CC was approximately 60 times that of the pristine electrode. A strong positive correlation (R²=0.998) relationship could be attained across the content of 0.25–3 μM, achieving the detection limit to be 0.29 μM. The impressive performance was maintained in the complex matrices and regeneration test. In addition, Zn-TBA/CC exhibited better physical properties, charge transfer ability, and sensing properties than Zn-TBA/GCE, highlighting the advantages of CC as a flexible sensor substrate. Finally, the stable recovery (90–98.5 %) in the spiked actual surface water confirmed that the two established methods possessed a promising application potential in capturing and detecting the trace Hg(Ⅱ) with high accuracy and precision. This study extended the application of MCPs in the electrochemical sensor and provided an available analysis method to trap and determine the metal content.