Nanostructured materials including three different carbonized polyanilines and manganese oxyhydroxide were prepared and evaluated as electrode materials for sensing of lead and cadmium ions in aqueous media. Anodic stripping voltammetry results indicated that all prepared materials could be successfully used for determination of these two heavy metal ions. Carbonized polyaniline-based electrodes have higher signal and lower limits of detection (10(-7) M) compared to manganese oxyhydroxide-based electrode. Among the three studied carbonized polyanilines, the one that was derived from polyaniline precursor produced in the presence of 3,5-dinitrosalicylic acid showed the highest electrocatalytic activity towards the lead and cadmium oxidation.