Tripodal cadmium complex of hydrotris(3-phenyl-5-methylpyrazolyl)borate (I 1 ) and macrocyclic ligand 5,7 : 12,14 : 19,21 : 26,13,19,11,22,4,15, (I 2 ), have been synthesized and characterized by IR, 1 H NMR, Mass and elemental analysis. Spectroscopic investigations indicate high affinity of these receptors for dihydrogen phosphate ion. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) based membranes of (I 1 ) and (I 2 ) using hexadecyl trimethylammonium bromide (HTAB) as cation discriminator and dibutylpthalate (DBP), tributyl phosphate (TBP), dioctylsebacate (DOS), and o-nitrophenyloctyl ether (o-NPOE), as plasticizing solvent mediators were prepared and investigated as H 2 PO À 4 selective sensors. The best performance was shown by the membrane of composition (w/w) (I 2 ) (5%):PVC (31%) : DBP (61.5%):HTAB (2.5%). This sensor works well over a wide concentration range 2.1 Â 10 À7 to 1.0 Â 10 À2 M with Nernstian compliance (59.0 mV decade À1 of activity) with a fast response time of 14 s and showed good selectivity for dihydrogen phosphate ion over a number of anions. The sensor exhibits good reproducibility (SD AE 0.3 mV) and could be used successfully for the determination of phosphate in soil water samples.