Smartphone-based electrochemical analysis integrated with NFC system for the voltammetric detection of heavy metals using a screen-printed graphene electrode

The electrochemical determination of five heavy metals is demonstrated using a wireless and card-sized potentiostat coupled with a smartphone through near-field communication (NFC) technology. A smartphone application was customized to command the NFC potentiostat, collect real-time signals, process the data, and ultimately display the quantities of the selected elements. The screen-printed graphene electrode (SPGE) was simply fabricated and modified using different nanomaterials for each heavy metal. Using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) mode on the smartphone, the signal peaks were presented at + 10 mV for As(III), + 350 mV for Cr(VI), 0 mV for Hg(II), - 900 mV for Cd(II), and - 680 mV vs. Ag/AgCl for Pb(II). The linear ranges were 25-500, 250-25,000, 100-1,500, 25-750, 25-750 ng mL-1 with detection limits of 3.0, 40, 16, 2.0, and 0.95 ng mL-1 for As(III), Cr(VI), Hg(II), Cd(II), and Pb(II), respectively. The reproducibility in terms of relative standard deviation was less than 8.8% (n = 5 devices) of the developed SPGE coupled with the NFC potentiostat. Various samples for different applications (e.g., food safety and environmental monitoring) were analyzed and quantified using the proposed sensors. The results from this sensor indicate that there is no significant difference (95% confidence level) compared with those obtained from the traditional ICP-OES method, while the recoveries were found in the acceptable range of 80-111%. Hence, it can be deduced that this recent advanced technology of the NFC potentiostat developed for heavy metal analysis offers a highly sensitive and selective detection, yet the sensor remains compact, low-cost, and readily accessible to end-users.