Abstract
Determination of the levels of heavy metal ions would support assessment of sources and pathways of water pollution. However, traditional spatial assessment by manual sampling and off-site detection in the laboratory is expensive and time-consuming and requires trained personnel. Aiming to fill the gap between on-site automatic approaches and laboratory techniques, we developed an autonomous sensing boat for on-site heavy metal detection using square-wave anodic stripping voltammetry. A fluidic sensing system was developed to integrate into the boat as the critical sensing component and could detect ≤1 μg/L Pb, ≤6 μg/L Cu, and ≤71 μg/L Cd simultaneously in the laboratory. Once its integration was completed, the autonomous sensing boat was tested in the field, demonstrating its ability to distinguish the highest concentration of Pb in an effluent of a galena-enriched mine compared to those at other sites in the stream (Osor Stream, Girona, Spain).
Highlights
Freshwater, a necessity for humans and other life forms, has been continuously compromised by inclusion of heavy metal (HM) pollutants from various natural and anthropogenic processes.[1]
The flow was stopped during equilibrium and stripping, in which the deposited HMs on the working electrode were reoxidized, and the voltammogram was recorded in a portable computer by the potentiostat
These results were consistent with a previous study of HMs in Mine Osor, in which the concentrations of various HMs were characterized by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and the results showed that in the soil sample, collected from a location (OS-6 in the previous study) adjacent to our testing site, the concentrations of Pb, Zn, and Ba were 2 orders of magnitude higher than those of the rest of the HMs (e.g., Cd and Cu).[28]
Summary
Freshwater, a necessity for humans and other life forms, has been continuously compromised by inclusion of heavy metal (HM) pollutants from various natural and anthropogenic processes.[1]. Compared to the reported studies of an automatic on-site sensing probe based on anodic stripping voltammetry, the autonomous boat has advantages in being fully automated and high portable because of its compact design and small size.[16−19] Simultaneous detection can be realized with one SPE sensor in the low-cost FSS (cost shown in Tables S1 and S2) without the need for photolithography, which may have a future impact in resourcelimited regions.[17−19]. More detailed results about indoor and outdoor validation of this autonomous sensing boat and quantitative analysis are shown in another work, already submitted for publication.[30]
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