Special Issue "Sensing of Organic Pollution in Soil, Air, Water and Food"
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A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2011)
Special Issue Editors
Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Claes-Göran S. Granqvist
The Ångström Laboratory, Department of Engineering Sciences, Uppsala University, PO Box 534, SE-751 21 Uppsala, Sweden
E-Mail: claes-goran.granqvist@angstrom.uu.se
Phone: +46 18 471 30 67
Fax: +46 18 50 01 31
Interests: materials science for solar energy and energy savings; this includes thin films and nanomaterials for sensors, photocatalysis, electrochromics and thermochromics
Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Laszlo B. Kish
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College Station, Texas A&M University, TX 77843, USA
Website: http://www.ece.tamu.edu/People/bios/bkish.php
E-Mail: laszlo.kish@ece.tamu.edu
Phone: +1 979 84 79071
Fax: +1 979 845 6259
Interests: fluctuation-enhanced chemical sensing; fluctuation-enhanced biological sensing; vibration-induced conductance fluctuation (VICOF) analysis of soils; noise-based logic and computing; unconditionally secure computers, hardware, memories and algorithms; unconditionally secure classical communication and networks; stealth communication
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Organic pollution, such as petroleum hydrocarbons, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, chlorinated aromatic compounds, and pesticides in soil, water and food, and its vapors in air, are disastrous. For example, spilled crude oil and petroleum products damage greatly the environment and pose serious health risk to humans, animals and plants. Managing remediation of polluted media requires accurate assessment of the extent and composition of pollutants. Portable, rapid, cheap and robust sensing technologies for the assessment of organic pollution in soil, air, water and food are the topic of this special issue. Technologies, sensitivity, selectivity, speed, reliability/robustness at various conditions, etc. are of great interest.
Prof. Dr. Claes-Göran S. Granqvist
Prof. Dr. Laszlo B. Kish
Guest Editors
Submission
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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed Open Access monthly journal published by MDPI.
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Keywords
- chemical sensors
- physical sensors
- optical sensors
- multi-spectral sensors
- infrared sensors
- solid-state sensor
- electronic noses
- electronic tongues
- mobility analyzers
- gas chromatographs
- mass spectrometers
Published Papers (10 papers)
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Received: 8 August 2011; in revised form: 4 September 2011 / Accepted: 8 September 2011 / Published: 15 September 2011
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Abstract: The Fuglebekken basin is situated in the southern part of the island of Spitsbergen (Norwegian Arctic), on the Hornsund fjord (Wedel Jarlsberg Land). Surface water was collected from 24 tributaries (B1–B24) and from the main stream water in the Fuglebekken basin (25) between 10 July 2009 and 30 July 2009. The present investigation reveals the results of the analysis of these samples for their PAH and PCB content. Twelve of 16 PAHs and seven PCBs were determined in the surface waters from 24 tributaries and the main stream. Total PAH and PCB concentrations in the surface waters ranged from 4 to 600 ng/L and from 2 to 400 ng/L respectively. The highest concentrations of an individual PCB (138–308 ng/L and 123 ng/L) were found in samples from tributaries B9 and B5. The presence in the basin (thousands of kilometres distant from industrial centres) of PAHs and PCBs is testimony to the fact that these compounds are transported over vast distances with air masses and deposited in regions devoid of any human pressure.
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Received: 1 October 2011; in revised form: 8 November 2011 / Accepted: 9 November 2011 / Published: 18 November 2011
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Abstract: Detection of trace levels of persistent pollutants in the environment is difficult but significant. Organic pollutant homologues, due to their similar physical and chemical properties, are even more difficult to distinguish, especially in trace amounts. We report here a simple method to detect polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in soil and distilled spirit samples by the surface-enhanced Raman scattering technique using Ag nanorod arrays as substrates. By this method, polychlorinated biphenyls can be detected to a concentration of 5 μg/g in dry soil samples within 1 minute. Furthermore, based on simulation and understanding of the Raman characteristics of PCBs, we recognized homologues of tetrachlorobiphenyl by using the surface-enhance Raman scattering method even in trace amounts in acetone solutions, and their characteristic Raman peaks still can be distinguished at a concentration of 10-6 mol/L. This study provides a fast, simple and sensitive method for the detection and recognition of organic pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls.
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Received: 11 October 2011; in revised form: 11 November 2011 / Accepted: 22 November 2011 / Published: 28 November 2011
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Abstract: The pyrethroid insecticide cypermethrin is used for agricultural and public health campaigns. Its residues may contaminate soils and the beneficial soil organisms, like the earthworms, that may ingest the contaminated soil particles. Due to its ecological relevance, earthworms Eisenia andrei/fetida have been used in different ecotoxicological tests. The avoidance of soils treated with cypermethrin by compost worms Eisenia andrei was studied here as a bioindicator of the influence of treatment dosage and the pesticide formulation in three different agricultural soils indicated by the Brazilian environmental authorities for ecotoxicological tests. This earthworms’ behavior was studied here as a first attempt to propose the test for regulation purposes. The two-compartment test systems, where the earthworms were placed for a two-day exposure period, contained samples of untreated soil alone or together with soil treated with technical grade or wettable powder formulation of cypermethrin. After 48 h, there was no mortality, but the avoidance was clear because all earthworms were found in the untreated section of each type of soil (p < 0.05). No differences were found by the Fisher’s exact test (p ≤ 1.000) for each soil and treatment, demonstrating that the different soil characteristics, the cypermethrin concentrations and formulation, as well as the smaller amounts of soil and earthworms did not influence the avoidance behavior of the earthworms to cypermethrin. The number and range of treatments used in this study do not allow a detailed recommendation of the conditions applied here, but to the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported attempt to identify the avoidance of pesticide treated tropical soils by earthworms.
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Received: 27 September 2011; in revised form: 9 November 2011 / Accepted: 18 November 2011 / Published: 28 November 2011
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Abstract: The development of chemical sensors for environmental analysis based on fluorescence, phosphorescence and chemiluminescence signals continues to be a dynamic topic within the sensor field. This review covers the fundamentals of this type of sensors, and an update on recent works devoted to quantifying organic pollutants in environmental waters, focusing on advances since about 2005. Among the wide variety of these contaminants, special attention has been paid polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, pesticides, explosives and emerging organic pollutants. The potential of coupling optical sensors with multivariate calibration methods in order to improve the selectivity is also discussed.
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Received: 17 November 2011; in revised form: 1 December 2011 / Accepted: 5 December 2011 / Published: 8 December 2011
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Abstract: Detection of persistent pollutants such as polychlorinated benzene in environment in trace amounts is challenging, but important. It is more difficult to distinguish homologues and isomers of organic pollutantd when present in trace amounts because of their similar physical and chemical properties. In this work we simulate the Raman spectra of hexachlorobenzene and benzene, and figure out the vibration mode of each main peak. The effect on the Raman spectrum of changing substituents from H to Cl is analyzed to reveal the relations between the Raman spectra of homologues and isomers of polychlorinated benzene, which should be helpful for distinguishing one kind of polychlorinated benzene from its homologues and isomers by surface enhanced Raman scattering.
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Received: 17 October 2011; in revised form: 2 December 2011 / Accepted: 14 December 2011 / Published: 15 December 2011
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Abstract: Dioxins and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (DL-PCBs) are hazardous toxic, ubiquitous and persistent chemical compounds, which can enter the food chain and accumulate up to higher trophic levels. Their determination requires sophisticated methods, expensive facilities and instruments, well-trained personnel and expensive chemical reagents. Ideally, real-time monitoring using rapid detection methods should be applied to detect possible contamination along the food chain in order to prevent human exposure. Sensor technology may be promising in this respect. This review gives the state of the art for detecting possible contamination with dioxins and DL-PCBs along the food chain of animal-source foods. The main detection methods applied (i.e., high resolution gas-chromatography combined with high resolution mass-spectrometry (HRGC/HRMS) and the chemical activated luciferase gene expression method (CALUX bioassay)), each have their limitations. Biosensors for detecting dioxins and related compounds, although still under development, show potential to overcome these limitations. Immunosensors and biomimetic-based biosensors potentially offer increased selectivity and sensitivity for dioxin and DL-PCB detection, while whole cell-based biosensors present interpretable biological results. The main shortcoming of current biosensors, however, is their detection level: this may be insufficient as limits for dioxins and DL-PCBs for food and feedstuffs are in pg per gram level. In addition, these contaminants are normally present in fat, a difficult matrix for biosensor detection. Therefore, simple and efficient extraction and clean-up procedures are required which may enable biosensors to detect dioxins and DL-PCBs contamination along the food chain.
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Received: 4 November 2011; in revised form: 29 November 2011 / Accepted: 9 December 2011 / Published: 20 December 2011
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Abstract: Airport runoff can contain high concentrations of various pollutants, in particular polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the environmental levels of which have to be monitored. Airport runoff water samples, collected at the Gdańsk-Rębiechowo Airport from 2008 to 2009, were analysed for PAHs and PCBs by gas chromatography. The aromatic fractions were separated by liquid-liquid extraction and analysed by GC/MS. Total PAH concentrations were 295–6,758 ng/L in 2008 and 180–1,924 ng/L in 2009, while total PCB levels in 2008 ranged from 0.14 to 0.44 µg/L and in 2009 from 0.06 to 0.23 µg/L. The PAH and PCB compositions in airport runoff waters were examined over a range of spatial and temporal scales to determine distributions, trends and possible sources. This pollution is mainly pyrolytic and related to anthropogenic activity. There were significant differences between the samples collected in the two seasons. An understanding of the magnitude of contamination due to airport runoff water is important for the effective management of airport infrastructure.
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Received: 1 November 2011; in revised form: 5 December 2011 / Accepted: 5 December 2011 / Published: 22 December 2011
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Abstract: This paper summarises the results of voltammetric studies on the herbicide 3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1-methoxy-1-methylurea (Linuron), using a carbon paste electrode containing tricresyl phosphate (TCP-CPE) as liquid binder. The principal experimental conditions, such as the pH effect, investigated in Britton-Robinson buffer solutions (pH 2.0–7.0), the peak characteristics for the analyte of interest, or instrumental parameters for the differential pulse voltammetric mode were optimized for the method. As found out, the best electroanalytical performance of the TCP-CPE was achieved at pH 2.0, whereby the oxidation peak of Linuron appeared at ca. +1.3 V vs. SCE. The analytical procedure developed offers good linearity in the concentration range of 1.25–44.20 μg mL−1 (1.77 × 10−4–5.05 × 10−6 mol L−1), showing - for the first time - the applicability of the TCP-CPE for anodic oxidations in direct voltammetry (without accumulation). The method was then verified by determining Linuron in a spiked river water sample and a commercial formulation and the results obtained agreed well with those obtained by the reference HPLC/UV determination.
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Received: 11 November 2011; in revised form: 29 November 2011 / Accepted: 23 December 2011 / Published: 4 January 2012
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Abstract: This paper presents a new Ubiquitous Sensor Network (USN) Architecture to be used in developing countries and reveals its usefulness by highlighting some of its key features. In complement to a previous ITU proposal, our architecture referred to as “Ubiquitous Sensor Network for Development (USN4D)” integrates in its layers features such as opportunistic data dissemination, long distance deployment and localisation of information to meet the requirements of the developing world. Besides describing some of the most important requirements for the sensor equipment to be used in a USN4D setting, we present the main features and experiments conducted using the “WaspNet” as one of the wireless sensor deployment platforms that meets these requirements. Furthermore, building upon “WaspNet” platform, we present an application to Air pollution Monitoring in the city of Cape Town, in South Africa as one of the first steps towards building community wireless sensor networks (CSN) in the developing world using off-the-shelf sensor equipment.
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Received: 11 January 2012; in revised form: 29 February 2012 / Accepted: 2 March 2012 / Published: 7 March 2012
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Abstract: As toxic pesticide residues may persist in agricultural soils and cause environmental pollution, research on natural fungicides to replace the synthetic compounds is currently increasing. The effect of the synthetic fungicide chlorothalonil and a natural potential fungicide on the soil microbial activity was evaluated here by the substrate-induced respiration by addition of glucose (SIR), as bioindicator in two soils (Eutrophic Humic Gley—GHE and Typic Eutroferric Chernosol—AVEC). The induced soil respiration parameter was followed during 28 days after soil treatment either with chlorathalonil (11 µg·g−1), or the methanolic fraction from Polymnia sonchifolia extraction (300 µg·g−1), and 14C-glucose (4.0 mg and 5.18 Bq of 14C-glucose g−1). The 14C-CO2 produced by the microbial respiration was trapped in NaOH (0.1 M) which was changed each two hours during the first 10 h, and 1, 3, 5, 7, 14 and 28 days after the treatments. The methanolic fraction of the plant extract inhibited (2.2%) and stimulated (1.8%) the respiration of GHE and AVEC, respectively, but the synthetic chlorothalonil caused 16.4% and 2.6% inhibition of the respiration, respectively of the GHE and AVEC soils. As the effects of the natural product were statistically small, this bioindicator indicates that the methanolic fraction of the Polymnia sonchifolia extract, which has fungicide properties, has no environmental effects.
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Last update: 18 October 2011
