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Testing water without the wait

A new highly sensitive device for detecting mercury in water has been developed at Barcelona’s Institute of Materials Science. This innovation opens the door to the possibility of on-site analysis, thereby avoiding the shipment of samples to labs and long waits for rest results

STAFF | APRIL 28TH, 2011


Knowing whether or not a body of water contains mercury is very important because it is a highly toxic element. Current detection methods require highly sensitive laboratory equipment and trained personnel. But now there exists the possibility of designing a highly accurate yet portable water quality test thanks to a new sensor developed at Barcelona’s Institute of Materials Science.

The device is based on an optical sensor chip that can detect mercury ions in water samples with a high degree of sensitivity. This sensor can be implemented in easy-to-use portable measurement systems, and can detect the presence of mercury at the picomolar level, which represents a concentration a thousand times smaller than the maximum amount allowed by the European Union in drinking water. Other advantages of the new device are that samples do not require any previous treatment and only approximately one milliliter of water, less than a spoonful, is needed to carry out the test.

In order to design this sensor researchers used a modified molecule that allows the formation of a monolayer of receptor molecules on a tiny gold-plated surface. The small amount of gold used in the chip is what conditions the price of the analysis, according to scientists Jaume Veciana and Immaculada Ratera. However, a single chip can perform up to four tests, which lowers its final cost.

The test’s high level of sensitivity and the ability to perform analysis on site, thereby avoiding sending samples to labs and waiting days for the results, "justifies the relevance of the development," said the researchers.

The new test appeared in an article recently published in the journal Chemical
Communications: Selective picomolar detection of mercury(II) using optical sensores. Journal Artículo César Díez-Gil, Rosario Martínez, Imma Ratera, Thomas Hirsh, Arturo Espinosa, Alberto Tárraga, Pedro Batanea, Otto S. Wolfbeis and Jaume Veciana. Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 1842-1844 DOI: 10.1039/C0CC04860G.

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