Sensor detects toxins in drinking water sources

Funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, the findings were published in the journal ACS ES&T Engineering.

Project collaborators included researchers from across several disciplines at UC: Vesselin Shanov, professor of chemical engineering; Ryan White, associate professor of electrical engineering and chemistry; and Bill Heineman, distinguished research professor of chemistry. Researchers from the Environmental Protection Agency — Armah de la Cruz and Eunice Varughese — also contributed.   

“Vasileia was very motivated. She went over the typical environmental engineering kind of training,” Dionysiou said. “She went to the chemistry department to learn aspects related to the electrochemistry and sensor development, she did some testing with a company that makes aptamers, and she had amazing support with sensors from Professor Bill Heineman and Professor Ryan White.”

Using water samples taken from Lake Erie and other Ohio bodies of water, the researchers employed their sensor to successfully detect and measure the amount of a specific type of microcystin commonly found in the region. The next step for future research is to expand the types of toxins the sensor can detect and create a prototype device to be used in the field. 

“We focused on microcystins which are very commonly found here in Ohio and other places, but there are other important toxins, so we want to develop modified sensors that can be selective for other toxins, as well as sensing devices that can detect and quantitatively measure multiple cyanotoxins in water,” Dionysiou said.