Abstract
Due to its high toxicity, Pb2+ pollution is a serious threat for human health and environments. However, in situ real-time detection of Pb2+ pollution is difficult and laboratory instruments are usually required. Then, the possibility to monitor water quality without laboratory instruments could lead to the extensive assessment of polluted water sources, especially in rural environments and developing countries where large lead concentrations are often found in surface water. Consequently, new simple colorimetric sensors are highly interesting in the field. In this work we report for the first time disposable polymer planar 1D photonic crystals made of poly (N-vinylcarbazole) as high refractive index medium and sodium alginate as low refractive index and active medium for the detection of Pb2+ in water. The detection relies on the ionic exchange occurring into the alginate matrix. This process effectively induces a physical cross-linking phenomenon, which inhibits water solubilization of the polymer. In turn, this affects the spectral response of the planar 1D photonic crystals modifying its color.
Highlights
Lead is a toxic poisonous substance for humans and animals
We demonstrate the in use characterization of the new planar 1D photonic crystal, we test and analyze its dynamic behavior together with poly(N-vinylcarbazole) building block for the first time
For the concentration 10−4 M, the low intensity of the photonic band gaps (PBG) makes it hardly detectable in the contour plot we reported the pristine spectra collected for the sample
Summary
Lead is a toxic poisonous substance for humans and animals. In recent years, several Pb2+. Extensive monitoring was employed for oxygen detection and assessment of turbidity in water distribution plants [16] but fast, low cost and continuous detection of hazardous pollutants still remains an open issue In this regard, several detection systems based on surface plasmon resonance [17,18,19], fluorescent molecules or nanocrystals [20,21,22], chemical receptors [23], as well as electrochemical [24,25,26,27,28], liquid crystals [29], colloidal PhCs [30] or sophisticated structures [31] showed low detection limits ranging from 10−4 to 10−12 M (101 –10−7 mg/L) to Pb2+.
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