Optimisation and production of a molecular-imprinted-polymer for the electrochemical determination of triacetone triperoxide (TATP)

Triacetone triperoxide (TATP) explosive is one of the most common components of improvised explosive devices which can be prepared from commercially readily available reagents with easier synthetic procedure that is available over the internet. Molecularly imprinted polymer electrochemical sensors can offer highly selective determination of several classes of compounds from wide range of sample matrices in parts per billion levels. Highly sensitive and selective molecularly imprinted polymer electrochemical sensor has been developed for determination of TATP in acetonitrile. Molecular imprinting has been performed via electro-polymerization on to glassy carbon, gold, silver and platinum electrode surface by cyclic voltammetry from a solution of pyrrole functional monomer, TATP template, and LiClO4 supporting electrolyte. Quantitative differential pulse voltammetric measurements of TATP, with LiClO4 supporting electrolyte, were performed using the molecularly imprinted polymer modified and bare glassy carbon electrodes in a potential range of -2.0V to +1.0 V (vs. Ag/AgCl). Three-factor two-level factorial design has been used to optimize the monomer concentration at 0.1 mol L-1, template concentration at 100 mmol L-1, and the number of cyclic voltammetry scan cycles to 10 cycles, using differential pulse voltammetric current intensity as response variable. The molecularly imprinted polymer modified glassy carbon electrode demonstrated superior selectivity for TATP in the presence of PETN, RDX, HMX, and TNT.