Sensing aromatic pollutants in water with catalyst-sensitized water-gated transistor
- PDF / 1,433,578 Bytes
- 12 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 52 Downloads / 148 Views
ORIGINAL PAPER
Sensing aromatic pollutants in water with catalyst‑sensitized water‑gated transistor Nawal Alghamdi1,2 · Zahrah Alqahtani1,3 · Changyan Zhou4 · Naoko Sano5 · Marco Conte4 · Martin Grell1,6 Received: 9 December 2019 / Accepted: 19 May 2020 © Institute of Chemistry, Slovak Academy of Sciences 2020
Abstract Some materials that are active heterogeneous catalysts for the breakdown of non-ionic aromatic solutes in water are found to act as potentiometric sensitizers for same solutes. As an example, here the aromatic water pollutant, benzyl alcohol, was sensed with a limit of detection below its potability limit of 19 μM. Our findings are rationalized on the grounds that both catalysis and sensing rely on adhesion of analyte/substrate on the sensitizer/catalyst. Specifically, a set of powdered transition metal-doped zeolites and related frameworks that catalyze the oxidation of waterborne aromatic pollutants were dispersed in phase transfer matrices. Matrices were introduced into water-gated thin film transistors that act as potentiometric transducers. Potentiometric sensing of non-ionic waterborne pollutants is limited to molecules with a ‘free’ molecular dipole, i.e., a dipole that is not locked in the molecular plane. The present work establishes an application for catalysts beyond catalysis itself. The use of catalysts as sensitizers is recommended for wider uptake and in reverse, to screen candidate catalysts. Keywords WGTFT · Zeolite · Benzyl alcohol · Sensor · Catalyst
Introduction The first step in heterogeneous catalysis is the adsorption of a ‘substrate,’ i.e., a molecule that is meant to be catalyzed, from solution onto the surface of a solid catalyst. Adsorption often is highly selective (Friend and Xu 2017; Medford et al. 2015). If the initial adsorption of substrate onto Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11696-020-01212-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Nawal Alghamdi [email protected] 1
Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Hicks Building, Hounsfield Rd, Sheffield S3 7RH, UK
2
Department of Physics, University of Tabuk, King Fahad Road, Tabuk 47731, Saudi Arabia
3
Department of Physics, University of Taif, Taif‑Al‑Haweiah 21974, Saudi Arabia
4
Department of Chemistry, Dainton Building, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S3 7HF, UK
5
Nara Women’s University, Nisi‑machi, Kita Uoya, Nara 630‑8506, Japan
6
Llyfrgell Bangor, Ffordd Gwynedd, Bangor LL57 1DT, UK
a catalyst surface can be transduced into a physical (e.g., electrical) signal, then a material known to be a catalyst for a particular substrate would also act as a selective receptor or ‘sensitizer’ in a sensor for this substrate, which then would be called the sensor’s ‘analyte.’ Such a sensor will be effective even below the temperature required for a catalyst to be active, as adsorption already occurs at lower temperatures. The present work demonstrates this concept on the example of
Data Loading...
