Citation:

Berberich, J., T. Li, AND E. Sahle-Demessie. Chapter 11 - Biosensors for Monitoring Water Pollutants: A Case Study With Arsenic in Groundwater. Chapter 11, Separation Science and Technology. Elsevier B.V., Amsterdam, Netherlands, 11:285-328, (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-815730-5.00011-9

Impact/Purpose:

Water pollution has been a significant threat to human and animals. This issue is getting serious due to higher water consumption, intensified human activity, and climate change. Monitoring water quality is critical to understand water pollution, provide information for water resource management, and ensure the safety of water. As water pollution profile evolves, sensor technology is advanced to meet the new challenges. Biosensors offer many desirable features for water quality monitoring. They are particularity suitable for field use because they are selective, cheap, quantitative, safe, and disposable. In this book chapter, arsenic pollution is used as the representative case to demonstrate the scale and variability of a persistent pollutant in groundwater. The need for cheap arsenic sensors for water resource management is highlighted. There have been vigorous efforts to develop biosensors to monitor arsenic in the field. The underlying mechanisms and their performance are reviewed. This report is useful to guide biosensor development with the need in field. It also promotes the desirable features of biosensors for rapid water quality monitoring in field.

Description:

Population growth and unsustainable agricultural and industrial activities have led to a decrease in water quality and availability, causing ecological risks and challenging drinking water treatment plants to provide clean water. Many techniques are available for monitoring known water contaminants, but they are typically expensive and cumbersome requiring trained scientists or technicians to use them correctly. Biosensors provide the opportunity for simple to use, disposable or continuous tests, for monitoring many of the common contaminants and emerging contaminants that water-quality personnel are facing today. This chapter discusses the changing profile of water pollution and sources of regulated and emerging contaminants. A detailed discussion is provided on the monitoring of arsenic in groundwater and the current field-monitoring approaches. An introduction to biosensors is provided along with a discussion on arsenic biosensors that are developed for field applications. Finally, the future of biosensors for emerging contaminants is discussed.

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