Determination of Lead in Herbal Medicine by a Lab-on-a-Tip (LOT) Optical Fiber Sensor

A lab-on-a-tip (LOT) has been constructed as a sensing platform for the detection of lead using a disposable pipette tip. The LOT has been constructed with optical fiber spectroscopy where the inside wall of a pipette tip is modified with a polymeric inclusion membrane (PIM) immobilized with dithizone as a chemical sensor for Pb(II) in herbal samples. Under optimal conditions, the LOT determined Pb(II) across a linear concentration range from 1.9 to 20 mg/L with a detection limit of 0.621 mg/L. The analysis of samples shows good agreement with the flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS).

Automated summary

A lab-on-a-tip (LOT) sensing platform using a disposable pipette tip has been developed for the detection of lead. This platform is based on optical fiber spectroscopy and uses a polymeric inclusion membrane (PIM) as a chemical sensor to detect Pb(II) in herbal samples. The results show that the LOT method has good detection performance and is in agreement with the traditional method FAAS.