Quality of drinking water differs in many parts of the world and is usually assessed based on national standards and international guidelines. The most important document in this field are WHO (World health organization) Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality. Depending on the source, drinking water quality is not always easy to determine. Hence a need for inexpensive disposable colorimetric sensors has emerged. Paper as an inexpensive and abundant material from natural resources is, owing to its unique properties, an ideal substrate for creating such sensing devices.<br/>In our work hydrophobic patterns and colorimetric indicators were printed using inkjet technology, while the capillary action of the paper allows water samples to move within the hydrophobic pattern in order to reach the indication sites. The advantage of such system is that it requires a small sample volume only.<br/>Different types of commercially available and widely used sizing agents were used to create a variety of hydrophobic patterns, i.e. ASA (alkyl succinic anhydride) and AKD (alkyl ketene dimer). The wettability of these patterns was studied by means of static water contact angle measurements. In addition, a study of the interaction between the hydrophobic agents and model cellulosic surface was performed using quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D). The topography of the printed patterns was visualized with scanning electron microscopy (SEM).<br/>The combination of these methods will allow us to fully understand the mechanisms of interaction of sizing agents with cellulose substrates and fabricated surfaces with aqueous analytes, thus paving the way to create an efficient and precise sensing device.

Inkjet printed paper-based sensing device for colorimetric determination of contaminants in drinking water

249th National Meeting (2015)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.