Abstract

Background: Determination of heavy and transition metal ions, like lead, especially with the aid of portable, user fiendly, and accurate and precise devices has long been an interesting area in analytical applications, especially in the case of environmental and biological samples. In this light, and given the facility, speed, accuracy, precision and also moderate costs of electrochemical monitoring techniques, these methods have been brought into the spotlight. Among the various areas of research used for such purposes, the preparation, modification and application of carbon paste electrodes (CPEs), as sensors which offer rather unique advantages of renewability of their surface, stable responses, low Ohmic resistance, and above all, the possibility of modifying and fine tuning their composition to meet the requirements of specific analytical applications, have given these devices a unique role among the other comparable techniques and hence this field has turned to a very attractive area of scientific endeavor. The composition of the carbon pastes usually consists of graphite powder dispersed in a binding solvent, but the characteristics of CPEs have been further improved through the addition of various modifiers. A rather recent step in the area of modification of CPEs, is the application of nano-materials to form nanocomposite carbon paste electrodes (NC-CPEs).

Objective: The application of NC-CPEs has been widely developed, and the current review tends to offer an overview on the development and applications of NC-CPEs for the analysis of lead, as a significant transition metal with various biological roles. This manuscript furtehr tends to provide the reader with a classification of the nano-composite modified CPEs for lead ions, which might surve as a general outlook for planing for further research, for the same analyte as well as others.

Keywords: Nano-composite, carbon paste, electrochemical sensors, lead, glassy carbon electrodes, binding solvents.

Graphical Abstract