A novel laminated polycaprolactone/paper/silver electrode for lead(ii) detection

Abstract

Lead(II) (Pb²⁺), one of the most toxic heavy metals, has been in the public eye recently owing to its presence in public water supplies. In this paper, a novel laminated paper/silver electrode (LPSE) was developed for sensitive and selective analysis of Pb²⁺. A simple and cost effective maskless fabrication method using a two-step lamination process for the fabrication of paper-based electrodes was developed. Polycaprolactone (PCL) serves as an insulator and adhesive component for the fabrication. Following optimization, the developed electrode had a linear working range of 50–500 nM (R² = 0.9994), low detection limit (16 nM), and acceptable recovery (95–103%) for Pb²⁺ in a low-cost platform.