Anion-selective membrane electrodes doped with ammonium or phosphonium salts and metal compounds with charge usually display the so-called Hofmeister selectivity sequence: ClO4 -> SCN -> I -> NO3 -> Br -> NO2 -> Cl ->SO4 2-. 1,2 Thus research on anti-Hofmeister sensing materials for anions is a challenging domain in chemical sensors. The derivatives of vitamin B12, metalloporphyrins, metallo-phthalocyanines and Schiff-base metallic complexes have been used as sensing materials for anion-selective electrodes in previous research.3-11 These electrodes possessed a preferential potentiometric response towards some specific anions, such as salicylate, thiocyanate, iodide, and nitrite in an anti-Hofmeister sequence. These differences showed that the potentiometric response of the electrodes was closely related to a direct interaction between the central metal and a specific ion as well as the steric effect associated with the structure of the complexes.Iodine is greatly present in the environment, medicine and food samples, and also is an indispensable microelement to humans. Thus, the determination of iodide ion of actual samples is very important. Although a solid-state electrode based on a pressed mixture of AgI/Ag2S has been commercially used to determine I -, the quality and characteristics of the electrode are strongly influenced by many factors, such as high purity of sulfides, mechanical properties, pressure, and temperature used in making pellets.12 At present, several PVCbased liquid membrane iodide-selective electrodes based on a variety of sensing materials, especially complexes of cobalt(II) and mercury(II), have been reported in the literature. [13][14][15][16][17][18] However, cobalt(II) complexes are less stable and mercury(II) complexes are toxic. Moreover, most of the electrodes have some problems, such as low selectivity, narrow linear range, and high detection limit. It is therefore important to search for sensing materials of the iodide-selective electrode with excellent performance. In this work, a copper(II) complex of N,N′-bis(salicylidene)-1,2-bis(p-aminophenoxy)ethane (Cu(II)BBAP) ( Fig. 1) with high stability and nontoxicity was synthesized and used to prepare a PVC-based liquid-membrane electrode. Our researches found that this electrode displayed excellent potentiometric response characteristics toward iodide, such as a wide linear range, low detection, fast response and good stability. The response mechanism of the electrode was investigated in view of the A.C. impedance and UV/Vis spectroscopy technique. The Cu(II)BBAP-based electrode was preliminarily applied to the determination of iodide in some medicines, such as iophendylatum.
Experimental
Methods and apparatusPotentiometric measurements were made with a Model PHS-4C lonalyzer (Chengdu Science Co., Chengdu, China) and a