Development, Analysis and Evaluation of Arsenic (III) Sensor

Pollution or contamination plays a major part in dreadful health hazards. Water, the most essential entity for life is being consumed without the knowledge of contaminants. Arsenic (As III) above 10μg/L is regarded to be poisonous to life and causes lung or skin cancer and cardiovascular geotaxis, mutagenic & carcinogenicc effects. Contamination of As may not only occurs in under or drinking water but also in sea water which may be a health threat to aquatic lives. Arsenic decontamination need to be strictly adopted upon any form of water purification. A special technique for the determination by express sensing of arsenic ionic level in water was examined on a Smooth or Glassy carbon electrode (GCE) with nano Gold transformation in 0.5 M H₂SO₄. The nano Gold was setup using a cycling potential continuously ranging from 0.619 to-0.481 V (vs. HAuCl₄^.3H₂O) Chloro Auric Acid in 0.5 M H₂SO₄ solution. The Gold nano particles are electro-deposited on GCE. The electrode was examined by Differential Pulse Voltammetry (DPV), Anodic Stripping Voltammetry (ASV), Linear Sweep Voltammetry (LSV) and cyclic Voltammetry (CV). After optimization, a LOD (Level Of Detection) of 0.9 parts per billion (ppb) was achieved with a 60s transformation at -0.94 V in 0.5 M H₂SO₄ whereas the WHO's (World Health Organization) maximum allowable arsenic level is 10 ppb, in drinking water. Mercury Mercurious Sulphate (MMS) was used as standard reference electrode. The developed sensor was evaluated for copper ion interference and was found to have no interfering effect due to ionic copper which is the most potential obstructing ionic species in ionic arsenic determination.