Novel selective ionic liquid membrane-coupled microfluidic chip for heavy metal separation and analytical strategies

The development of new low-cost, highly selective and efficient methods for the separation and detection of heavy metal ions in aqueous environments is of great importance for water safety and biological health. In this study, a novel ion separation membrane was prepared for the separation of copper ions in cadmium ion detection solution. Compared with the commercial membrane, the ion mobility was increased by 64.02 %, and further separated by selective complexation of thiacalix[4]arene-p-tetrasulfonate (TCAS), and the separation factor for Cu/Cd reached 34.66. This allowed Cd to be detected preferentially, and reduced the interference of other ions in the detection. The joint electric field environment was regulated to separate the organics and reduce the interference to the detection. The sensing performance was enhanced by modifying the screen-printed electrodes. The proposed sensing platform allows for simultaneous pre-processing and detection and has a detection limit of 0.19 μg-L −1 (S/N = 3) for Cd 2+ .