The growing demand for inexpensive low cost water quality monitoring requires the development of field portable analytical devices that can be used to evaluate environmental contamination and measure water quality parameters. This presentation will discuss development, scalable manufacturing, analytical characterization and deployment of low cost portable sensors prepared by 2D and 3D printing and their application for the detection of environmental contaminants including heavy metals, nutrients, per and poly-fluoroalkyl substances and phenolics. To fabricate the sensors, we use additive manufacturing methods, which provide opportunities for scalable production at a low cost. These sensors incorporate functional materials and receptor molecules to create the sensing layers, selected to specifically recognize and interact with contaminants of interest. Examples of sensors that utilize printable paper, modification of paper and procedures enabling roll-to-roll fabrication will be discussed, as well as the development of stand-alone printed optical and electrochemical sensors. A unique feature of these devices is the built-in detection mechanism with all the sensing components needed for analysis fixed onto the sensing platform so that they can function as an integrated all-in-one device. The sensors have been interfaced with portable databases and user-friendly signal transduction methods and imaging tools (e.g. cell-phones). Several prototypes will be discussed, with examples of implementation for water quality monitoring, as well as challenges for translating this technology into the practice. Considering their high portability and low cost, these sensors could be used for on-site detection and environmental monitoring in low resources settings or areas that require high throughput analysis of a large number of samples.

Manufacturing inexpensive easy-to-use sensors for on-site contaminant detection and water quality monitoring

Fall 2022 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch in mid-September.

ACS Fall 2022

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