Recent research from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory has established a novel screening method to identify defective water quality sensors before production, paving the way for effective mass production. Previous manufacturing techniques suffered from the inability to detect these faulty devices, leading to future reliability issues.
Drinking water contaminated with heavy metals, pesticides, and bacteria poses a large threat to worldwide public health. That is why researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory along with researchers from the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin teamed up to identify ways to safeguard the public from contamination. In their research, published in Nature Communications, the researchers developed a method to produce water sensors that can be mass-produced and faulty sensors could be identified before ever going to production.
“Traditionally, sensors designed to measure contaminants in water have suffered from reliability issues and the inability to detect faulty devices,” said Argonne scientist Haihui Pu. “Improved sensors could avert health crises.”
Previously, continuously monitoring sensors proved challenging due to the presence of faulty sensors and other more robust water testing methodologies like mass spectrometry proved to be challenging to implement in much of the world. To solve this, the researchers set out to streamline sensor production and increase the reliability of the sensors for use in existing water infrastructure.
“The beauty of the sensors is that you can apply them in any form of water, not just tap water,” said Junhong Chen, Argonne’s lead water strategist. “What’s more, you can combine three, thirty or three hundred sensors, with each tailored to detect different constituents.”
The researchers found that by submerging the sensors in water and measuring the electrical response of the insulating area, structural defects in the sensors could be detected and resolved before the sensors head to mass production. The new methodology provides a versatile approach to water quality monitoring and sensor production. The team of researchers hope to commercialize the technology and develop robust methods for the rapid production of water quality sensors.