Microscale Voltammetric Mercury Monitor

75525-Heavy metal contamination in ground and surface water is a widespread problem within the DOE complex. Advanced methods and instrumentation will be required to provide reliable, long-term monitoring for evaluation and remediation of this contamination. This project will develop a low-cost, portable monitor for mercury, achieving superior stability, reproducibility, and sensitivity. The active element of the device will be a microfabricated, electrochemical chip, which exploits the unique advantages of microband electrode geometry to promote the sensitive detection of metals. Phase I will encompass efforts to demonstrate the proposed concept, including (1) design and fabrication of the device, and (2) evaluation of detector performance. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: electrochemical detection of heavy metals would provide a low-cost, portable avenue to on-site testing for industrial and personal environmental evaluations such as in drinking water and waste water analysis, process effluent analysis, and environmental remediation.