Electrochemical sensing probe for chemical oxygen demand (COD) assay in waste water: molecular-scale particle design, electrode engineering and system integration

化学需氧量(COD)是完全分解水中有机化合物所需的氧化剂的量，对于净化饮用水中的危险和/或生物活性物质至关重要。传统上，这是通过将剧毒和腐蚀性消化器混合物中的有机污染物矿化来实现的，这会引起安全和环境问题。拟议中的发现拨款研究针对的是一种对有机污染物的氧化具有电化学、光电化学和热电化学反应的新型材料。因此，它们将被集成到一个无试剂的传感器系统中，该系统的性能可以超过现有的商业COD检测。这将通过应用其他引发和激活方法来实现，例如超声波、光、偏振和/或温度。该探索计划将有三个相辅相成的目标：(1)分子尺度颗粒设计，提供针对多个氧化还原活性中心的高比表面积催化剂；(2)了解电化学-光化学-热释电催化对COD检测的协同作用；以及(3)集成了光、温度和超声波激发模式的传感器原型。

The chemical oxygen demand (COD) is the amount of oxidant necessary to fully decompose organic compound in water and is critical for purifying drinking water from hazardous and/or biologically active substances. Conventionally this is carried out by mineralization of organic contaminants in the mixture of very toxic and corrosive digesters, which generate safety and environmental concerns. The proposed Discovery Grant research has been targeted at a new class of materials that have electrochemical, photo-electrochemical and pyro-electrochemical reactivity toward oxidation of organic pollutants. Thus they will be integrated into a reagent-free sensor system which can outperform the existing commercial COD assay. This will be accomplished by applying additional initiation and activation methods such as ultrasound, light, polarization and/or temperature. This Discovery program will have three complementary objectives: (1) molecular-scale particle design that delivers catalyst with a high surface area targeting multiple redox active centers, (2) understanding of the synergy electrochemical-photochemical-pyroelectric catalysis toward COD detection, and (3) the sensor prototyping with integrated excitation modes: light, temperature and ultrasound.