Abstract
Maintaining a clean water supply is of utmost importance for human civilization. Human activities are putting an increasing strain on Earth’s freshwater reserves and on the quality of available water on Earth. To ensure cleanliness and potability of water, sensors are required to monitor various water quality parameters in surface, ground, drinking, process, and waste water. One set of parameters with high importance is the presence of cations. Some cations can play a beneficial role in human biology, and others have detrimental effects. In this review, various lab-based and field-based methods of cation detection are discussed, and the uses of these methods for the monitoring of water are investigated for their selectivity and sensitivity. The cations chosen were barium, cadmium, chromium, copper, hardness (calcium, magnesium), lead, mercury, nickel, silver, uranium, and zinc. The methods investigated range from optical (absorbance/fluorescence) to electrical (potentiometry, voltammetry, chemiresistivity), mechanical (quartz crystal microbalance), and spectrometric (mass spectrometry). Emphasis is placed on recent developments in mobile sensing technologies, including for integration into microfluidics.
Highlights
Water is an important part of human physiology
As a range of methods are becoming available for water quality monitoring, we review state-of-the-art research that was recently published in the area of cation monitoring for aqueous environments
The importance of the detection of cations in drinking water was discussed with respect to the effects that various cations have on human physiology, as well as the sources of these cations in water
Summary
Water is an important part of human physiology. It is necessary for various bodily functions; it has various uses from agriculture to cleaning, food processing, chemical processes, and many more. The human body consists of 50% to 70% of water, and water intake is necessary for adequate kidney health. Humans need at least one liter of water a day [1]. Water is used to maintain personal hygiene and general cleanliness. Since water is used in so many different ways around the world, it is important to maintain water to a safe standard for consumption and for use in the fields where it is required. Many countries and international agencies have guidelines for various parameters to maintain. Maximum allowable concentration (MAC) guideline values are listed in Table 1 for various jurisdictions
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