DEVELOPMENT OF NANO SENSORS FOR REAL-TIME MONITORING OF HEAVY METAL CONTAMINATION IN SOIL

Abstract

This paper describes the design of an advanced and affordable sensor capable of detecting heavy metal pollution in the soil in real-time. For such detection, a highly conductive, electrocatalytically active and large-surface-area rGO-AgNP-based hybrid material was Department of Climate Change and Sustainable Development. Such materials were successfully utilized to fabricate the sensor, which possessed high sensitivity owing to effective electron transfer, as well as high adsorption capacity for ions. According to analytical data, the linear range of detection was relatively broad; moreover, the high sensitivities and low limits of detection were observed for the determination of Pb²⁺, Cd²⁺, and Hg²⁺ ions. High selectivity in the presence of interfering species, reproducibility and low relative standard deviation, as well as long-term stability during a period of 15 days, were noted as the main advantages of the developed material and sensor. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed sensor, the test was performed using real soil samples, and the obtained results were successfully compared to the reference ICP-MS method. The recovery rates amounted to 95-104%.