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A Facile Colorimetric Method for Ultra-rapid and Sensitive Detection of Copper Ions in Water

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Abstract

It is of great meaning to develop a facile, reliable and sensitive method to detect copper ions in water. In the study, a facile method has been developed for rapid and sensitive detection of Cu2+. An interesting phenomenon has been observed that 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) ethanol solution can be extremely fast passed from colorless to yellow once Cu2+ ions are added. It easily occurs to us that Cu2+ can be quantitatively determined via the absorbance at 904 nm of the color changed TMB solution. More importantly, some specific anions (Cl−, Br−) can significantly enhance the absorption intensity. Under the optimized experimental conditions, this method exhibits a good linear response range for Cu2+ from 0.5 to 100 μM, with the detection limit of 93 nM. Moreover, the possible detection principle has been explored. It is worth mentioning that the color change can be clearly observed by naked eyes for the detection of 1 μM Cu2+, which is far below the threshold limit of Cu2+ in drinking water suggested by World Health Organization. It means that this method possess great promise for on-site Cu2+ detection.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the financial support from Sichuan Province Science and Technology Support Program (No. 2020YFN0029), the One-Thousand-Talents Scheme in Sichuan Province, Scientific Start-up Research Fund of Chengdu University of Information Technology (No. KYTZ201714), and the Central University Basic Research Fund of Southwest Minzu University (2018NZD08).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Optoelectronic Engineering, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu, 610225, China

    Lei Chen, Yan Li, Ping Sun, Hualin Chen & He Li

  2. Key Laboratory of Basic Chemistry of the State Ethnic Commission, School of Chemistry and Environment, Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Jun Liu

  3. School of Ocean and Earth Science, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Ziyue Chen

  4. Faculty of Quality Management and Inspection and Quarantine, Yibin University, Yibin, 644000, China

    Bin Wang

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  1. Lei Chen
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  5. He Li
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Contributions

LC: Methodology, Writing—Original Draft. YL: Writing—Original Draft. HC: Guidance of Theoretical analysis. HL: Designed the experiment and wrote the revised the paper. JL: Writing—Review & Editing. ZC: Writing—Review & Editing. BW: Writing—Review & Editing.

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Correspondence to Hualin Chen or He Li.

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Chen, L., Li, Y., Sun, P. et al. A Facile Colorimetric Method for Ultra-rapid and Sensitive Detection of Copper Ions in Water. J Inorg Organomet Polym 32, 2473–2481 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10904-022-02255-7

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