Sensor for real-time detection of chemical contaminants in water

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Water monitoring technology for detecting chemical and biochemical contaminants is undergoing a major transition due to unprecedented growth in demand. Effective monitoring and control of water quality are critical for many industries including drinking water, wastewater, agriculture, aquaculture, and coastal industries. There is an unmet demand of real-time continuous monitoring of chemical contaminants and biochemical hazards for these industries. The innovative water sensor developed in our research group and presented in this proposal will meet this demand by converting smartphones into water monitoring devices that can detect pollutants in water.We shift from existing water quality sensing paradigms that rely on complex and expensive laboratory-based analysis and introduce a novel sensor whose measurement principles are based on utilizing the image capturing and processing power of smartphones. Our water quality sensor is a small optoelectronic device that can be easily installed on a smartphone. It contains an array of sensing nodes, each sensitive and selective to a specific chemical contaminant. Upon the contact of the sensing layer with the water, various image signals are created, which are recognized by a software, indicating the presence and quantity of chemical contaminants. The idea behind this approach was that the most advanced electronic sensor that a large portion of the world population carries around is the image sensor of a smartphone. Our cellphone-based sensor provides people with portable, cost-effective, and easy-to-operate platforms for analyzing their water quality instantly. This will put the power of timely detection of water chemical and biochemical contaminants in the hands of industry operators.