Detecting trihalomethanes using nanoporous-carbon coated surface-acoustic-wave sensors
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
We study nanoporous carbon (NPC) grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) as a sorbent coating on 96.5-MHz surface-acoustic-wave (SAW) devices to detect trihalomethanes (THMs), byproducts from the required chemical treatment of drinking water. Using both insertion-loss and isothermal-response measurements from known quantities of chloroform (CF), the THM with the highest vapor pressure, we optimize the NPC mass-density at 1.05 ± 0.08 g/cm3 via careful control of the background argon pressure during PLD. Precise THM quantities in a chlorobenzene solvent are injected directly into a separation column and detected as the phase-angle shift of the SAW device output compared to the drive signal. Using optimized NPC-coated SAWs, we study the CF response as a function of operating temperatures that range from 10 – 50 °C. Finally, we demonstrate individual responses from complex mixtures of all four THMs over three orders of magnitude of analyte masses after gas chromatography separation. Each THM detection limit is estimated, by extrapolating its isotherm to values three times the standard deviation of the instrumentation noise, to be 4.4 ng for CF to 1 ng for bromoform (BF) using a simple response peak-height evaluation, and 0.73 ng for CF to 0.003 ng for BF using an integrated-peak response analysis.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 1235915
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1248827
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-2015-20772J; SAND-2014-3449J; 558211
- Journal Information:
- Journal of the Electrochemical Society, Vol. 162, Issue 6; ISSN 0013-4651
- Publisher:
- The Electrochemical SocietyCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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