Polymethacrylate Sensors for Rapid Digital Colorimetric Analysis of Toxicants in Natural and Anthropogenic Objects

The paper presents a set of measurement (analytical) procedures for a rapid digital colorimetric analysis (DCA) of the following toxicants: tracer agents in drilling liquid; cobalt, chromium, and overall content ΣMe of heavy metals (Fe, Cd, Co, Zn, Pb, Ni, Cu, and Mn) in tap water, industrial wastewater and river water; nitrites and ΣMe in soils and in vegetables grown in these soils. The analytical procedures were implemented in a computerized electronic device, called digital colorimetric analyzer (DC-analyzer), using specially developed polymethacrylate sensors with the immobilized colorimetric reagents. The experimental validation has shown that the analytical performance (in terms of linear ranges, linearity, sensitivity, trueness, and precision under conditions of repeatability) of the proposed DCA procedures is not worse than the analytical quality of the procedures based on the traditional solid-phase spectrophotometry (SPS) for the same analytes. In terms of response time, the DCA operates (3-4.5) × 10
³
times faster than the SPS. The designed DC-analyzer has small weight and dimensions. Together with the developed analytical procedures it can be widely applied for monitoring the sanitary quality of drinking water in a relatively inexpensive and fast way.