Using Chemiresistor Sensor Arrays to Test Petrol Station Groundwater Samples for Hydrocarbon Pollutants

摘要

Groundwater monitoring is a cumbersome and expensive process. Typically, once every three to six months a technician visits a site, collects water samples, and transports them to an analytical laboratory for testing. Not only is the testing expensive, but potentially catastrophic events could remain undetected for several months. A plausible alternative could be gold nanoparticle chemiresistors sensor arrays. We have previously demonstrated that gold nanoparticle chemiresistors can operate in water irrespective of the salinity of the aqueous solution, and an array of these chemiresistors could discriminate between different complex mixtures of hydrocarbons such as gasoline, diesel, kerosene or crude oil dissolved in artificial seawater. In addition, we have demonstrated that an array can identify BTEXN in the presence of 15 other structurally relevant hydrocarbons in laboratory-grade water. In the current study we investigate how feasible is it for these chemiresistor sensors to function in real groundwater samples.