During the past decade, the demand for detection of heavy metals has rapidly grown due to increasing environmental contamination. Although certain trace levels of heavy metal ions are harmless and often vital for human health, high doses can be hazardous. Wearable sensors can serve as a non-invasive diagnostic tool to monitor and quantify heavy metal content present on an individual at a given time. Here, we present wearable potentiometric sensors to monitor Zn2+, Ag+ and Pb2+ content in aqueous solutions, with a future application to on-body sweat analysis. Solid-contact, plastic and/or screen-printed electrodes were prepared by employing a commercially available Ag/AgCl conductive ink for the reference electrode (PVB (Polyvinyl butyral)/Sat. NaCl membrane) and a carbon paste conducting ink for the working electrode (polymer based ISE membrane). The electrodes were screen-printed on a (2cm×2cm) Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) sheet, wherein only a 300 µL sample volume is needed, and it exhibits equilibration time of less than 5 minutes. Furthermore, the sensor at hand only requires a conditioning time of less than 5 hours due it is miniature size and thin membrane platform. Preliminary experiments show promising results with near Nernstian response for Zn2+, Ag+ and Pb2+ with sub-micromolar limits of detection.

Wearable potentiometric sensors for heavy metals detection

255th National Meeting (2018)

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