הנדסת מים

32 130 | מגזין המים הישראלי הנדסת מים | כנס כנרת להנדסה וחדשנות בתחום המים ע״ש פרופסור נוח גליל Real-Time Detection of Copper Contaminants in Environmental Water using Porous Silicon Fabry–Pérot Interferometer M i ke B i smu t h L i f e S c i e n ce s and Nanotechnology, Bar Ilan University, Eytan Zaltzer Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health - Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, MuthukumarDivagar Instituteof Agricultural Engineering, ARO, The Volcani Center, Ran Suckeveriene Department of Water Industry Engineering, Kinneret Academic College, Giorgi Shtenberg Institute of Agricultural Engineering, ARO, The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan New technology will enable t o d e t e c t me t a l i o n s a t env i ronmen ta l l y re l evan t concentrations Water sources are vulnerable to intentional and inadvertent human pollution with thousands of synthetic and geogenic trace contaminants, posing long-termeffects on the aquatic ecosystem and human health. Thus, early and rapid detection of water pollutants followed by corrective and preventive actions can lead to the reductionof theoverall polluting impact to safeguard public health. Our work describes a generic sensing assay for label- free detection of copper contaminants in environmental water samples using porous Silicon Fabry–Pérot interferometers. The main advantage of the presented sensing concept is the ability to detect metal ions at environmentally relevant concentrations using a simple and portable experimental setup. By reflective interferometric Fourier transform spectroscopy, we monitor in real-time the changes in thechelatingactivityofmultilayered polyethylenimine (PEI) functionalized scaffolds inducedby copper ions. Theoptimized scaffold of two sequential PEI layers depicted a linear working range between 0.2 and 2 ppm while presenting a detection limit of 0.053 ppm (53 ppb). The specificity of the developedplatform was cross-validated against various metallic pollutants and cations commonly found in water bodies (i.e., Cd 2+ , Pb 2+ , Cr 3+ , Fe 3+ , Mg 2+ , Ca 2+ , Zn 2+ , K + and Al 3+ ). Finally, as a proof of concept, the analytical performance of the porous interferometer for real-life scenarios was demonstrated in threewater samples (tap, ground and irrigation), presenting sufficient adaptability to complex matrix analysis with recovery values of 85-106%. Overall, the developed sensing concept offers an efficient, rapid and label-free methodology that can be potentially adapted for routine on-site detection using a simple and portable device. Moreover, the presented proof-of-concept study demonstrates the possibility to design simple yet reliable sensors (for point-of-care) to target a variety of heavy metal ions or other environmental pollutants by proper choice of biorecognition element and its interface with the optical transducer.