• Home
• Application
• Projects
• Previous Programs
  • 2006
    • Program Schedule
    • Events Schedule
    • Participants/Project Abstracts
  • 2007
    • Program Schedule
    • Events Schedule
    • Participants/Project Abstracts
• Links
  • Department of Chemistry
  • NFS REU
  • Analytical Sciences Digital Library
  • ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry

Participants/Project Abstracts

Summer 2006 Bioanalytical Science REU Participants

UCR Student - Nicha Chartuprayoon

CHELATOR FUNCTIONALIZED CONDUCTING POLYMER FOR HEAVY METALS MONITORING

Nicha Chartuprayoon , Jiamin Wu, Ashok Mulchandani, Nosang V. Myung
Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of California-Riverside, UCR 92521

Nanoengineered materials have been increasingly used in field of environmental monitoring and remediation. These materials have ultra high surface to volume ratio and have unique physical, chemical and biological properties which enhance their performance. Many industries, including agriculture, and households generate massive quantity of heavy metal wastes which contributes to the pollution of biosphere and water and also affects public health as well as economy. With the 2005 priority lists of hazardous substances compiled by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), heavy metal ions such as lead, mercury, and cadmium ranked second, third, and seventh places of hazardous substances. The main goal in this research is to develop chelator functionalized conducting polymer thin film and nanowire electrode for detection of heavy metal ions.

A metal-binding chelator (e.g. ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid or EDTA) doped polypyrrole modified glassy carbon electrodes were fabricated by anodically electropolymerizing pyrrole monomers from solutions containing EDTA. After fabrication of chelator doped polypyrrole thin film, electrodes were overoxided to increase the signal to noise ratio. Then, heavy metal ions were accumulated to electrode, followed by electrochemical detection of heavy metal ions using Anodic Stripping Voltammetry (ASV). Anodic Stripping Voltammetry is selected to detect heavy metal ions because of its ultra sensitivity, portability, and ease of use.

Based on the preliminary experimental results, the chelator functionalized conducting polymer has been electrochemically made and used as a working electrode to detect Cadmium ions in acetate buffer solution. The pH value of acetate buffer was previously determined to be at 4.5 for optimum operating condition of heavy metals detection. The accumulation time of Cd 2+ ions becomes saturated at 15 minutes. This accumulation time was also used as the optimum operating condition to find lower and upper concentration limits of Cadmium ions. The limits have been experimentally founded to be 2ppb and 10ppb, respectively.

<< Back to Participants/Project Abstracts Main Page