Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 7, 2026

Quantification of Heavy Metals and Other Inorganic Contaminants on the Productivity of Microalgae
Published on: July 10, 2015
Visually multiplexed quantitation of heavy metal ions in water using volumetric bar-chart chip
Xinli Liu1, Yuzhen Wang2, Yujun Song1
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, 210093 Nanjing, China.
Abstract:
Heavy metal ions monitoring in water is practically significant for the environment and the human health. In this work, a lab-on-a-chip biosensor was developed for multiplexed quantitation of heavy metal ions by the integration of triple-channel volumetric bar-chart chip with DNA-nanoparticle probes. This method possesses the capability for rapid detection of Cu2+, Pb2+ and Hg2+ simultaneously with high sensitivity, selectivity and accuracy. Due to the highly catalase-like activity of the urchin-like platinum nanoparticles, this sensor exhibits high sensitivity with the detection limits of 1.0 nM, 1.0 nM and 1.8 nM for sensing of Cu2+, Pb2+ and Hg2+ respectively, which are much lower than the requirement of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in drink water and superior to the colorimetric method based on the metal ion-specific DNA assay. The accuracy and reliability were verified by our Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS) and Atomic Fluorescence Spectroscopy (AFS) measurements of real water sample. As the results can be directly read out without the need of the external instruments or complicate data processing, this sensor is extremely practical for environmental applications.
Related Concept Videos
Bar Graph
Run Charts
The R Chart
R charts are pivotal for pinpointing shifts in process variability. Stability is indicated when all data points remain within the defined upper and lower...
Bonding in Metals
Metal-Ligand Bonds
In these complexes, transition metals form coordinate covalent bonds, a kind of Lewis acid-base interaction in which both of the electrons in the bond are contributed by a donor (Lewis base) to an electron acceptor (Lewis acid). The Lewis acid in...
Formation of Complex Ions

