Electrochemical microsensors for the detection of cadmium(II) and lead(II) ions in plants

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 mi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2010-06, Vol.10 (6), p.5308-5328
Main Authors: Krystofova, Olga, Trnkova, Libuse, Adam, Vojtech, Zehnalek, Josef, Hubalek, Jaromir, Babula, Petr, Kizek, Rene
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
amperometry
Automation
Biosensing Techniques - instrumentation
Biosensing Techniques - methods
Cadmium
Cadmium - analysis
Carbon
Carbon - chemistry
Carbon - pharmacology
Chemistry
Electrochemistry - instrumentation
Electrochemistry - methods
Electrodes
Electrons
Environmental Monitoring - instrumentation
Environmental Monitoring - methods
Heavy metals
Ions - analysis
lead
Lead - analysis
maize
Mercury
Microelectrodes
miniaturization
plant
Plants - chemistry
screen printed electrode
Sensors
sunflower
Trace Elements - analysis
Voltammetry
water
Zea mays - chemistry
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Summary: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.
ISSN:1424-8220
1424-8220
DOI:10.3390/s100605308