Electrochemical Deposition of Lead for Water Quality Sensing

Lead contamination in drinking water can pose serious health risks to humans, and can often go undetected as a result of corrosion of lead infrastructure installed in buildings constructed prior to 1986. Thus, there is an unmet need for timely, cost-effective, and onsite monitoring of lead in drinking water. Here, we have designed a four-electrode system to reliably respond to electrodeposited lead oxide that provides a near real-time indication of lead presence. To better understand this detection mechanism, we investigated the temporal and spatial electrochemical deposition of lead using potential response data, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), fractal dimension (f(D)), and COMSOL Multiphysics (R) finite element analysis. Our results suggest that the deposition of lead oxide on the sensor is diffusion limited. Such fundamental understanding of the detection mechanism is critical to improve and shorten the detection time of the sensor. We used this information to improve the detection time and reliability of the signal by reducing the electrode gap distance and agitating the solution. This study provides a path for further optimization of a continuous electrochemical sensor for onsite monitoring of lead in drinking water. (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published on behalf of The Electrochemical Society by IOP Publishing Limited.

Automated summary

To address the need for timely and onsite monitoring of lead in drinking water, a four-electrode system was designed to detect the presence of lead. By studying the deposition mechanism of lead on the sensor, the detection time and reliability of the sensor were improved and reduced.