http://hdl.handle.net/11375/27400

Patel, Vinay (2022) Solid state phosphate sensor technologies, MacSphere Open Access Dissertations and Theses, http://hdl.handle.net/11375/27400

Phosphorus is needed by living organism including humans and plants, to survive. Imbalance in phosphate concentration in human body can result in numerous diseases or disorders while excess phosphorus levels in water bodies like lakes, and rivers, are responsible for the rise in incidence of algal bloom across world. Current commercial phosphate monitoring systems are dominated by colorimetric measurements while electrochemical sensors including potentiometric, amperometric and voltammetric sensors are still in the research phase. Electrochemical sensors require stable reference electrodes for reliable measurements that pose challenges for miniaturization. Solid state potentiometric sensors are widely explored due to their rapid response, easy fabrication and simple electronic measurement system. However, the sensor miniaturization is dependent both on the working and reference electrode. Metal electrodes like cobalt offers advantages such as reagent-free detection, easy to miniaturize but the sensitivity of zero-current potentiometric sensors is limited by the theoretical Nernstian limit and cobalt sensors also require chemical pretreatment in standard solution before measurement. Here, an in situ electrical pretreatment method is proposed to eliminate the need of chemical pretreatment and enhance the sensitivity of cobalt electrodes to -91.4 mV/ decade of phosphate concentration. However, this electrode still needs a reference electrode for reliable measurements. Therefore, this study has demonstrated a chemiresistive sensing platform for solid state detection of phosphate using both enzyme and enzyme-free methods. A rapid prototyping method was developed to pattern the thin metal films (~100 nm thickness) using a bench top plotter cutter. The method was used to fabricate thin gold film contact electrodes for chemiresistors. The thin gold leaf contact electrodes exhibited low-noise and offered a robust, rapid and reproducible manufacturing process for chemiresistors. The chemiresistive sensor showed a wide measuring range (0.5 ppm to 500 ppm) for hydrogen peroxide detection. The sensor was deposited with glucose oxidase to demonstrate the application of the sensor for peroxidase assays to detect glucose in standard buffer solution and human pooled plasma. Phosphate also is detected using pyruvate oxidase in presence of pyruvate to generate hydrogen peroxide as the detectable molecule. Finally, metal phthalocyanines were used to perform enzyme-free phosphate measurements. This work demonstrated the sensor technologies which could be used for in-field phosphate monitoring to prevent algal bloom and it also provides phosphate monitoring methods for rapid detection in medical diagnostics for early diagnosis for diseases like chronic kidney disease and to improve the patient’s outcomes for such diseases.

https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/bitstream/11375/27400/2/Patel_Vinay_202202_PhD.pdf