OBTAINING FUNCTIONALIZED MESOPOROUS CARBONS FOR ELECTROCHEMICAL SENSORS APPLICATION IN THE DETECTION OF EMERGING CONTAMINANTS
SYNTHESIS, MESOPOROUS CARBONS, SENSOR, VOLTAMMETRY
THE MESOPOROUS SILICA SBA-15 WAS SYNTHESIZED THROUGH HYDROTHERMAL METHOD AND USED AS TEMPLATE FOR THE SYNTHESIS OF THE MESOPOROUS CARBON, CMK-3, THROUGH NANOCASTING ROUTE. THE SYNTHESIZED MATERIALS KEPT THE HEXAGONAL PORE STRUCTURE. THE CMK-3 WAS ORGANOFUNCTIONALIZED USING MALEIC ANHYDRIDE AND REDUCING REAGENTS IN ORDER TO GENERATE CARBOXYLIC GROUPS AND TO CAUSE ITS REDUCTION, CMK-3RED. BOTH SYNTHESIS AND MODIFICATION OF MESOPOROUS CARBONS WERE PROVEN BY X RAY DIFFRACTOMETRY (XRD), THERMOGRAVIMETRY (TG), RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY AND SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY (SEM). THE XRD SPECTRA CONFIRM THAT THE CARBONACEOUS MATERIAL CMK-3 KEPT THE SAME STRUCTURE MORPHOLOGY OF SBA-15, CONFIRMED BY THE SEM IMAGES. THE FUNCTIONALIZED CMK-3RED HAD MORPHOLOGY ALTERATION DUE TO ITS CHEMICAL MODIFICATION, WHICH WAS CONFIRMED BY XRD, SEM AND TG. FOR THE ELECTROCHEMICAL DETECTION OF CAFFEINE AND SALICYLIC ACID ANALYTES WAS USED AN GLASSY CARBON ELECTRODE, WHICH WAS MODIFIED THROUGH DROP CASTING METHOD WITH THE MESOPOROUS CARBONS. DIFFERENTIAL PULSE VOLTAMMETRY WAS USED AS ELECTROCHEMICAL DETECTION TECHNIQUE, EXHIBITING IMPROVEMENT OF SENSITIVITY TO ANALYTES, BOTH INDIVIDUALLY AND SIMULTANEOUSLY, IMPROVING IN 10% WITH CMK-3 AND IN 30% WITH CMK-3RED.