Electrochemical sensing provides a feasible avenue to
monitor heavy
metal ions (HMIs) in water, whereas the construction of highly sensitive
and selective sensors remains challenging. Herein, we fabricated a
novel amino-functionalized hierarchical porous carbon by the template-engaged
method using ZIF-8 as the precursor and polystyrene sphere as the
template, followed by carbonization and controllable chemical grafting
of amino groups for efficient electrochemical detection of HMIs in
water. The amino-functionalized hierarchical porous carbon features
an ultrathin carbon framework with a high graphitization degree, excellent
conductivity, unique macro-, meso-, and microporous architecture,
and rich amino groups. As a result, the sensor exhibits prominent
electrochemical performance with significantly low limits of detection
for individual HMIs (i.e., 0.93 nM for Pb2+, 2.9 nM for
Cu2+, and 1.2 nM for Hg2+) and simultaneous
detection of HMIs (i.e., 0.62 nM for Pb2+, 1.8 nM for Cu2+, and 0.85 nM for Hg2+), which are superior to
most reported sensors in the literature. Moreover, the sensor displays
excellent anti-interference ability, repeatability, and stability
for HMI detection in actual water samples.