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An integrated smartphone-based electrochemical detection system for highly sensitive and on-site detection of chemical oxygen demand by copper-cobalt bimetallic oxide-modified electrode

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Abstract

A portable and integrated electrochemical detection system has been constructed for on-site and real-time detection of chemical oxygen demand (COD). The system mainly consists of four parts: (i) sensing electrode with a copper-cobalt bimetallic oxide (CuCoOx)-modified screen-printed electrode; (ii) an integrated electrochemical detector for the conversion, amplification, and transmission of weak signals; (iii) a smartphone installed with a self-developed Android application (APP) for issuing commands, receiving, and displaying detection results; and (iv) a 3D-printed microfluidic cell for the continuous input of water samples. Benefiting from the superior catalytic capability of CuCoOx, the developed system shows a high detection sensitivity with 0.335 μA/(mg/L) and a low detection limit of 5.957 mg/L for COD determination and possessing high anti-interference ability to chloride ions. Moreover, this system presents good consistency with the traditional dichromate method in COD detection of actual water samples. Due to the advantages of cost effectiveness, portability, and point-of-care testing, the system shows great potential for water quality monitoring, especially in resource-limited remote areas.

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Funding

The study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFC1910402 and 2021YFC1910400), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. U22A20617 and 52100184), the Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (2022JJ40080), and the Hunan Provincial Key Research and Development Program of China (2021SK2039).

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Author notes

  1. Zhengrong Dong and Xu Zhu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Electrical and Information Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410012, China

    Zhengrong Dong & Leyuan Fang

  2. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Ministry of Education), Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China

    Zhengrong Dong, **g Tang, Yibo Liao, **ngyang Cheng & Lin Tang

  3. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tiangong University, Tian**, 300387, China

    Xu Zhu

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  1. Zhengrong Dong
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  2. Xu Zhu
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Dong, Z., Zhu, X., Tang, J. et al. An integrated smartphone-based electrochemical detection system for highly sensitive and on-site detection of chemical oxygen demand by copper-cobalt bimetallic oxide-modified electrode. Microchim Acta 191, 343 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-024-06399-w

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