Barcode-like paper sensor for water hardness detection
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Abstract
The measurement of water hardness has become a routine practice for water quality control where complexometric titration is used as a standard method. The use of this method, nevertheless has some disadvantages in terms of multiple steps of analysis, large reagent consumption (>105 mL) and the requirement for technical skills. Therefore, the aim of this work is to develop a barcode-like paper sensor which is a user-friendly means for water hardness detection that can overcome the aforementioned shortcomings. For this purpose, this work presents the fabrication of a barcode-like paper sensor and its practical application in the detection of total water hardness. The paper sensor was fabricated using the wax screen-printing technique to generate a barcode-like pattern design. The sensor consists of a detection zone with four bar channels (each measuring 0.3 by 5.0 cm) and a sample zone with a triangular shape of the (1.9 cm height by 2.9 cm base). The sample zone takes a few drops of reagent and the analytical technique is based on the complexometric reaction. Particularly, 40.00 µL mixed EDTA-EBT solution in N-cyclohexyl-aminopropanesulfonic acid (CAPs) buffer pH 10.5 was pre-applied to the detection zone. The sample zone, on the other hand, takes 120.00 µL of a standard solution containing CaCO3 or water sample containing Ca2+ & Mg2+. Shortly after adding the sample, a pink banding pattern would be generated on the blue background of the paper sensor. A banding pattern can uniquely identify the concentration of CaCO3 in the range of 25-200 mg L-1 with a step size of 25 mg L-1. The proposed barcode-like paper sensor can be practically used for semi-quantitative by naked eye detection. Additionally, the system exhibited high tolerance towards various interfering ions in water samples. The results of application with real samples obtained from our method agreed with those obtained from the conventional complexometric titration.
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