Summary
Detecting heavy metals in water is essential to ensure clean drinking water and appropriate regulatory decisions following an accident (e.g., a spill) or an emergency. Traditionally, high-sensitivity detection of heavy metals requires bulky and costly (to purchase and operate) lab-based instruments. We propose developing a palm-sized, element-specific, highly-sensitive, battery-operated, smartphone-controlled system for on-site measurement to provide timely heavy metal concentration information. Two-dimensional quantum dots (2D-QDs) will be modified by adding molecular components specific to a heavy metal of interest; the interaction between the heavy metal and the chosen molecular component will result in visible fluorescence that can be measured. A high-sensitivity instrument will be developed around a battery-operated, portable microplasma, which will serve as a light source, and a battery-operated photo-detector. For measurement, modified 2D-QDs will be added to a contaminated water sample inside a cuvette placed in the instrument. When excited by the light emitted by the microplasma, the resultant fluorescence will indicate the presence and concentration of heavy metals in the water sample. Further, data acquisition electronics will be embedded in the instrument and a smartphone can be used to receive the digital data wirelessly. The development of this sensor can significantly improve the monitoring of heavy metals in waters in Canada and worldwide.
Figure 1. (Left) A concept diagram of the proposed instrumentation consisting of the light source, a cuvette with a water sample and a detector. (Right) The proposed fluorescence-measurement system will be palm-sized, battery operated and controlled by a smartphone.
Related Content
Advanced microwave electronics enabling quantum technologies
Summary Superconducting quantum computers require quantum-limited measurements at microwave frequencies in order to implement error correction. Conventionally, this is accomplished using near quantum-limited Josephson Parametric Amplifiers (JPAs). The JPAs require bulky ferrite-based circulators that prevent on-chip integration of the amplifiers with the processor and take up the majority of space and cooling power in the […]
April 1, 2020
Extensible Technology for a Medium-Scale Superconducting Quantum Processor
Summary Superconducting quantum bits, or qubits, use circuits made from superconducting materials to harness quantum mechanical states. These devices contain many atoms, but can behave as simple, controllable qubits. We are building technologies for the control and measurement of superconducting qubits to enable the first demonstration of an extensible, medium-scale quantum processor. Our approach […]
November 28, 2016
Chiral Quantum Antenna Based on Multilayer Metasurface
Summary Individual atoms can act as stationary qubits and thus serve as nodes in quantum computing networks or as memories for quantum repeaters. However, to successfully use qubits based on single atoms suspended in free space, photons emitted by a single atom need to be efficiently collected. Conventionally, this can be done with high […]
September 20, 2018
QuantumIon: an open-access quantum computing platform
Summary Trapped ions are one of the most advanced technologies for quantum computing, offering multi-qubit control in a universal quantum computing architecture and the ability to perform calculations with unprecedented precision. In this project we construct a shared trapped-ion quantum computing platform, QuantumIon, that will enable a broader and interdisciplinary scientific community to access an […]
September 9, 2019