Calix[2]furano[2]pyrrole and related compounds as the neutral carrier in silver ion-selective electrode Original Research Article

The performance of calix[2]furano[2]pyrrole and related compounds used as neutral carriers for silver selective polymeric membrane electrode was investigated. The silver ion-selective electrode based on calix[2]furano[2]pyrroles gave a good Nernstian response of 57.1 mV per decade for silver ion in the activity range 1×10−6 to 1×10−2 M. The present silver ion-selective electrode displayed very good selectivity for Ag+ ion against alkali and alkaline earth metal ions, NH4+, and H+. In particular, the present Ag+-selective electrode exhibited very low responses towards Hg2+ and Pb2+ ions. The potentiometric selectivity coefficients of the silver ion-selective electrode exhibited a strong dependence on the solution pH. In particular, the response of the electrode to the Hg2+ activity was greatly diminished at pH 2.5 compared to that at pH 5.0. Overall, the performance of the present silver ion-selective electrode based on the ionophore, calix[2]furano[2]pyrrole, is very comparable to that of the electrode prepared with the commercially available neutral carrier in terms of slope, linear range, and detection limits.