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有害和/或生物活性物质至关重要。传统上，这是通过在非常有毒和腐蚀性的消化器的混合物中矿化有机污染物来进行的，这产生了安全和环境问题。拟议的发现补助金研究针对一类新材料，这些材料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性。因此，它们将被集成到一个无试剂的传感器系统，可以优于现有的商业COD测定。这将通过应用额外的引发和活化方法如超声波、光、偏振和/或温度来实现。该发现计划将有三个互补的目标：（1）分子尺度的颗粒设计，提供针对多个氧化还原活性中心的高表面积催化剂，（2）了解协同电化学-光化学-热电催化对COD检测的影响，以及（3）集成激发模式的传感器原型设计：光，温度和超声。

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.