Estimation of photocatalytic degradation rate using smartphone based analysis

N Danyliuk,T Tatarchuk,A Shyichuk

doi:10.15330/pcss.21.4.727-736

Abstract

A simple approach to test photocatalyst activity has been described. Photocatalytic degradation of a model dye was measured using a smartphone. The color changes were registered directly in the micro-photoreactor. The model dye Rhodamine B was degraded under UV irradiation (365 nm). The effect of H2O2 concentration and titanium dioxide photocatalyst dosage has been studied. Among three color systems, RGB, CIE L*a*b* and HSV, the first one proved to be the most suitable for the dye determination. The reference measurements were carried out with a UV-Vis spectrophotometer. Two smartphones and two tablets with different camera resolutions have been examined. The best calibration curve was obtained using a Samsung Galaxy A6 smartphone with a 16MP camera. The t-test has shown with 95 % confidence that there are no significant differences between the dye concentrations measured with the smartphone and spectrophotometer. The values of the relative standard deviation of the smartphone measurements were less than 0.5 %. Therefore, the proposed method for fast estimation of photocatalyst activity can be used in the control of advanced oxidation reactions.

Highlights

The recent trend in analytical chemistry is to make the measuring techniques more feasible and wide spread
Smartphones can be combined with paper test strips, chip-based sensors and many other detectors
Test strips have been combined with a smartphone to quantify bacteria in food [2]

Summary

Introduction

The recent trend in analytical chemistry is to make the measuring techniques more feasible and wide spread. Smartphones provide many opportunities to improve medical diagnostics, chemical analysis and environmental control [1]. The confirmation is the growing number of scientific publications on smartphone-based analytical methods. The number of the studies on detecting food toxins and environmental contaminants will increase in the coming years. Smartphones can be combined with paper test strips, chip-based sensors and many other detectors. Test strips have been combined with a smartphone to quantify bacteria in food [2]. There are various smartphone-based systems for detecting food and water contaminants, including heavy metals [3,4], microorganisms and parasites [5, 6]

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