Electrochemical Microsensors for the Detection of Cadmium(II) and Lead(II) Ions in Plants

Sensors

Olga Krystofova¹  Libuse Trnkova⁴  Vojtech Adam¹  Josef Zehnalek¹  Jaromir Hubalek²  Petr Babula³ 

[1] Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Faculty of Agronomy, Mendel University in Brno, Zemedelska 1, CZ-613 00 Brno, Czech Republic; E-Mails:;Department of Microelectronics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication, Brno University of Technology, Udolni 53, CZ-602 00 Brno, Czech Republic; E-Mail:;Department of Natural Drugs, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno, Palackeho 1-3, CZ-612 42 Brno, Czech Republic; E-Mail:;Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlarska 2, CZ-611 37 Brno, Czech Republic; E-Mail:

关键词: heavy metals;    lead;    cadmium;    miniaturization;    screen printed electrode;    amperometry;    voltammetry;    plant;    maize;    sunflower;    water;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s100605308

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Routine determination of trace metals in complex media is still a difficult task for many analytical instruments. The aim of this work was to compare three electro-chemical instruments [a standard potentiostat (Autolab), a commercially available miniaturized potentiostat (PalmSens) and a homemade micropotentiostat] for easy-to-use and sensitive determination of cadmium(II) and lead(II) ions. The lowest detection limits (hundreds of pM) for both metals was achieved by using of the standard potentiostat, followed by the miniaturized potentiostat (tens of nM) and the homemade instrument (hundreds of nM). Nevertheless, all potentiostats were sensitive enough to evaluate contamination of the environment, because the environmental limits for both metals are higher than detection limits of the instruments. Further, we tested all used potentiostats and working electrodes on analysis of environmental samples (rainwater, flour and plant extract) with artificially added cadmium(II) and lead(II). Based on the similar results obtained for all potentiostats we choose a homemade instrument with a carbon tip working electrode for our subsequent environmental experiments, in which we analyzed maize and sunflower seedlings and rainwater obtained from various sites in the Czech Republic.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2010 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.