Phosphoryl containing podands as carriers in plasticized membrane electrodes selective to quaternary ammonium surfactants

Open chain polyethers with phosphoryl-containing terminal groups have been studied as carriers in plasticized membrane electrodes that are selective towards cationic surfactants. Host–guest complexation has also been studied by means of batch extraction and bulk membrane transport experiments. For the various guests, the bulk membrane (chloroform) transport rate decreases in the series tetraalkyl ammonium > alkyl pyridinium > alkyl ammonium, while the series of solvent extraction efficiency is exactly opposite; an explanation for this behaviour is proposed. The performance of electrode membranes follows the series for bulk membrane transport. Among the ISE membranes of various composition, one containing the longest (seven oxygen atoms) podand, o-nitrophenyl octyl ether (plasticizer), and sodium tetraphenyl borate (anionic additive) performs the best. The slope of the electrode function equals 58.5 mV/decade, the detection limit for dodecyltrimethylammonium is 3.2 × 10-6 M. ISE response time is 5–10 s, the working pH range is 2–11 and lifetime is at least 6 months. The electrode selectivity is significantly better than that of conventional ion-association and crown ether based electrodes.