Nanoporous Anodic Alumina Rugate Filters for Sensing of Ionic Mercury: Toward Environmental Point-of-Analysis Systems

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2014; 140724090802003.

Tushar Kumeria, Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman, Abel Santos, Josep Ferré-Borrull, Lluís F. Marsal, Dusan Losic.

School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005,Australia &

Departament d’Enginyeria Electrònica, Elèctrica i Automàtica, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Avda Països Catalans 26, 43007 Tarragona, Spain.

 

Abstract

Herein, we present an ultrasensitive, cost-competitive, and portable optical sensing system for detecting ionic mercury in environmental water. This analytical system combines structurally engineered and chemically modified nanoporous anodic alumina rugate filters (NAA-RFs) with reflection spectroscopy (RfS). The sensing performance of the proposed system is assessed through several tests, establishing its sensing performance (i.e., linear working range from 1 to 100 μM of Hg2+, low limit of detection 1 μM of Hg2+ ions (i.e., 200 ppb), and sensitivity of 0.072 nm μM–1), chemical selectivity (i.e., exposure to different metal ions Co2+, Mg2+, Ni2+, Cu2+, Pb2+, Fe3+, Ca2+, Cr6+, and Ag+) and metal ions binding mechanism (i.e., fitting to Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models). Furthermore, the detection of Hg2+ ions in tap and environmental water (River Torrens) is successfully carried out, demonstrating the suitability of this system for developing environmental point-of-analysis systems.

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detection of mercury

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