Heavy metals like lead and cadmium are found in batteries, cosmetics, food and other everyday items, Chemosensors magazine quotes an article as saying.
They are toxic when they accumulate in the human body and cause various health problems, but detecting them in body fluids requires expensive equipment and a controlled laboratory environment.
The research was supported by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), the São Carlos Institutes of Physics (IFSC) and Chemistry, and collaborators from the University of Munich in Germany and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.
As explained by Paulo Augusto Raymundo Pereira, co-author of the article and IFSC-USP researcher, important information about a person’s health can be obtained by measuring their exposure to heavy metals.
He explained that high levels of cadmium can cause deadly problems in the respiratory tract, liver and kidneys.
Meanwhile, lead poisoning damages the central nervous system, causing irritability, cognitive impairment, fatigue, infertility, hypertension in adults, and delayed growth and development in children.
Humans excrete heavy metals through sweat and urine, so analysis of these biofluids is an important part of toxicology testing and treatment.
“The world needs flexible sensors that can be easily, cheaply and quickly mass-produced, like our device, for on-site detection, continuous monitoring and decentralized analysis of dangerous compounds,” he said.
This sensor, unlike other expensive sensors, is simple in terms of the materials used to make it and the stages of its manufacture.
The base of the device is made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), with flexible conductive copper tape on it, a label you can buy at a stationery store that has the sensor printed on it, and a protective coating of nail, varnish or spray, Robson explained R. da Silva, a researcher at the Swedish University.
He added that exposed copper is removed by immersion in ferric chloride solution for 20 minutes, followed by washing in distilled water to promote the necessary corrosion; All this guarantees speed, scalability, low consumption and low costs, he said.
The device is in turn connected to a potentiostat, a portable instrument that determines the concentration of each metal by measuring the potential and current differences between the electrodes.
Finally, the result is displayed on a computer or smartphone using the appropriate application software.
According to experts, the system is simple enough to be used by both lay people and technicians in places like hospitals, clinics and doctor’s offices.
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