A double-mediator based whole cell electrochemical biosensor for acute biotoxicity assessment of wastewater

This work investigates the feasibility and sensitivity of a double-mediator based whole cell electrochemical biosensor to detect the acute biotoxicity of wastewater. The lipophilic mediator menadione was used to mediate the intracellular metabolic activities whereas hydrophilic potassium ferricyanide was employed as extracellular electron acceptor to transport the electron from the menadiol to anode. A chitosan hydrogel polymer film with boron-doped nanocrystalline diamond (BND) particles was electrodeposited onto a glassy carbon (GC) electrode to immobilize Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells and the mediators. The feasibility of the as-prepared biosensor was verified by determine the acute biotoxicity of four heavy metal ions(Cu2+, Cd2+, Ni2+, Pb2+), three phenol pollutants (3,5-dichlorophenol, 4-chlorophenol, phenol) and three real wastewater samples. The IC50 values for Cu2+, Cd2+, Ni2+, Pb2+ are 10.12 mg/L, 13.88 mg/L, 17.06 mg/L and 34.56 mg/L. And the IC50 value is 16.48 mg/L, 34.40 mg/L and 44.55 mg/L for 3,5-dichlorophenol, 4-chlorophenol and phenol, respectively. The results of this work indicate that the double-mediator based whole cell electrochemical biosensor could be applied into the acute toxicity assessment of real wastewater samples with excellent performance and highlight their merit as portable and sensitive, which may providing a reasonable and reliable way for wastewater toxicity online detection.