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
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
Mesoscopic systems as coherent control elements
Summary Mesoscopic systems provide a new tool for quantum systems design. In particular, they are enabling of robust quantum control. Here “mesoscopic system” refers to a connected network where each element, if studied alone, would be a quantum bit. The network is too big to be treated fully quantum mechanically. We do not have individual […]
September 1, 2016
Magnetoelectric Coupling in New Composite Multiferroic Nanostructures as High-Density Quantum Multistate Memory Elements
Summary Magnetoelectric multiferroics are materials that exhibit correlated ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties (i.e., a magnetoelectric effect). The resulting ability of these materials to simultaneously store data in electric polarization and magnetic moment could increase data storage density and data processing speed while reducing energy consumption. This project aims to design and fabricate new composite multiferroic […]
February 1, 2023
Developing Tools for Quantum Characterization and Validation
Summary Coherence is essential for quantum computation; yet it introduces a unique sensitivity to any imperfections in hardware design, control systems, and the operating environment. Overcoming these sensitivities requires a hierarchy of strategies, ranging from optimization of the hardware architecture to software solutions including quantum error correction. Randomized Benchmarking Protocols are an important family of […]
October 3, 2017