Abstract
Lead (Pb) has long been acknowledged as a systemic toxicant, with pronounced health impacts observed even at low exposure levels, particularly in children. Adverse effects include diminished cognitive function, altered behavior, and developmental delays. Consequently, it is imperative to conduct regular monitoring of Blood Lead Levels (BLLs). In this work, we report on an electrochemical sensor based on screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) coated with Nafion and mesoporous carbon (MC). The sensor system uses simple sample preparation (acidification and dilution of whole blood), minimal sample volume (a few blood drops, 200 μl), and swift time-to-results (1 h). A limit of quantitation (LOQ) of 0.3 μg dL−1 Pb was achieved in whole blood. To demonstrate the practical utility of our sensor system, we evaluated its performance in the analysis of blood samples collected from children (n = 25). Comparative analysis with the laboratory-based gold standard method of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) demonstrated approximately 77% accuracy and 94% precision. We anticipate that our approach will serve as a valuable tool for more frequent BLL monitoring, particularly in communities where access to laboratory testing is impractical or expensive.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-2024
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1149/1945-7111/ad2397
Funding Information
This work was supported in part by the National Institute of Environmental Health and Sciences (R33ES024717), and by the Richard and Loan Hill Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago.
Repository Citation
Boselli, Elena; Wu, Zhizhen; Haynes, Erin N.; and Papautsky, Ian, "Screen-Printed Sensors Modified with Nafion and Mesoporous Carbon for Electrochemical Detection of Lead in Blood" (2024). UK CARES Faculty Publications. 16.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/ukcares_facpub/16
Notes/Citation Information
© 2024 The Author(s). Published on behalf of The Electrochemical Society by IOP Publishing Limited. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse of the work in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.