Document Type

Patent

Issued Date

8-20-2002

Assignee

Boise State University

Abstract

The present invention is an apparatus for laboratory and field use in detecting and measuring Hg.sup.+ and Hg.sup.2+ in sample. A selective mercury binding agent, such as a chelating agent or clathrating agent, is covalently bound in a copolymer and deposited as an electrode layer. To prepare the preferred apparatus of the invention, thiophene, or other, similar monomer, is derivatized by covalent attachment thereto of Kryptofix-21.TM. (1,4,10-trioxa-7,13-diazacyclopentadecane) in the 3-position. The thiophene monomer and Kryptofix-21.TM. are co-polymerized and electrodeposited by known techniques onto a conductive substrate, such as platinum or glassy carbon, to obtain a multi-layer polymer coating of desired thickness. The resulting coated electrode has selective coordination sites for mercury of the order of K.sub.f =10.sup.16, compared to K.sub.f =10.sup.3 for cadmium, K.sub.f =10.sup.5 for lead and K.sub.f =10.sup.5 for silver. Therefore, the resulting probe is very selective for mercury, compared to cadmium, lead and silver.

Comments

10 Claims, 5 Drawing Sheets

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