Development of heavy metal ions detector driven by surface acoustic waves

Abstract

Environmental pollution caused by heavy metals is a global problem. Most of the metal ions lead to serious health concerns by producing free radicals. Therefore, rapid and accurate detection of metal ions has become an urgent problem. We develop a highly sensitive detector to detect heavy metal ions driven by surface acoustic waves (SAWs). The detector consists of a micro-reaction cell, a three-electrode system for electrochemical measurements, and two focused interdigital transducers (FIDTs) that produce SAWs. The SAWs promote liquid mixing effectively by sufficiently stirring the aqueous solution; therefore, the oxidation current in electrochemical reactions is enhanced. Furthermore, the center angles of the FIDT and the distance between two FIDTs turn out to be critical parameters in reaction efficiencies. These two factors can affect the SAW radiation areas which can influence the reaction efficiencies. This study realizes rapidly and accurately detecting heavy metal ions and provide a basis for designing SAWs-based detector for different chemical reactions. Environmental pollution caused by heavy metals is a global problem. Most of the metal ions lead to serious health concerns by producing free radicals. Therefore, rapid and accurate detection of metal ions has become an urgent problem. We develop a highly sensitive detector to detect heavy metal ions driven by surface acoustic waves (SAWs). The detector consists of a micro-reaction cell, a three-electrode system for electrochemical measurements, and two focused interdigital transducers (FIDTs) that produce SAWs. The SAWs promote liquid mixing effectively by sufficiently stirring the aqueous solution; therefore, the oxidation current in electrochemical reactions is enhanced. Furthermore, the center angles of the FIDT and the distance between two FIDTs turn out to be critical parameters in reaction efficiencies. These two factors can affect the SAW radiation areas which can influence the reaction efficiencies. This study realizes rapidly and accurately detecting heavy metal ions and provide a basis for desig...