Abstract

Ali Reza Zarei, Sonia Nobakht and Mohammad Ali Zaree

A novel optical sensor has been proposed for sensitive determination of boron in aqueous solutions. The sensing membrane was prepared by chemical immobilization of neutral red on the triacetylcellulose membrane. The procedure is based on spectrophotometric measurement of the decrease in the pH produced by the complexation of boric acid with mannitol by optical sensor at 540 nm. The influence of factors responsible for the improved sensitivity of the sensor were studied and identified. Under optimum conditions, the optode shows excellent response over a concentration range of 1.0-20 ìg.ml-1 for boron with a limit of detection of 0.50 µg.ml-1. The response time of the optode was about 10 min. The optode revealed very good selectivity with respect to many cations and anions. The proposed optode was applied to the determination of boron in water samples.

Boron; Optode; Triacetylcellulose; Neutral red; Spectrophotometry

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