A mercury(II) ion-selective electrode based on N,N-dimethylformamide-salicylacylhydrazone as a neutral carrier.

A new PVC membrane mercury(II) ion electrode based on N,N-dimethylformamide-salicylacylhydrazone (DMFAS) as an ionophore is described, which shows excellent potentiometric response characteristics and displays a linear log[Hg(2+)] versus EMF response over a wide concentration range between 6.2 x 10(-7) and 8.0 x 10(-2) M with a Nerstian slope of 29.6 mV per decade and a detection limit of 5.0 x 10(-7) M. The response time for the electrode is less than 30 s and the electrode can be used for more than 2 months with less than a 2 mV observed divergence in a potentials. The proposed electrode exhibits very good selectivity for mercury(II) ions over many cations in a wide pH range (pH 1 - 4). The electrode was also applied to the determination of a mercury(II) ion in vegetables and in Azolla filiculoides.