DETECTION OF HEAVY METAL IONS USING

CAPACITIVE SENSING METHOD

Guide Presented By
Dr. K. HariKishore G. Kushwanth (160040247)
G. Pavani Lakshmi (160040289)
Mentor P. Rama Krishna Dharma Teja (160040658)
Dr. C. Santosh Batch No: 15IECMG26
 CONTENTS
1. Objectives
2. Introduction
3. Effects of heavy metals on humans
4. Monitoring schemes of heavy metals
5. Optical detection of heavy metal
6. Electrochemical detection of heavy metals
7. Microfluidic channel
8. Capacitive sensor
9. Literature survey
10. Block diagram of proposed system
11. Plan of action

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 OBJECTIVES

• To design a capacitive sensor using COMSOL Multiphysics.

• To design a microfluidic channel using COMSOL Multiphysics.

• To detect the heavy metal ions present in water using the designed capacitive

sensor and microfluidic channel.

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 INTRODUCTION
• Water pollution due to heavy metal ions is a global issue which requires proper
attention in order to maintain the water quality demand.
• According to experts, 15 million children die each year under the age of five because
of diseases caused by drinking water.

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Fig.1 Sources and sinks of heavy metals
 EFFECTS OF HEAVY METALS ON HUMANS

Heavy Metal Effects of heavy metals on humans

skin lesions, internal cancers, neurological problems, pulmonary
Arsenic disease, hypertension and cardiovascular disease and diabetes
mellitus.
mental retardation, birth defects, allergies, weight loss, hyperactivity,
Lead paralysis, muscular weakness, brain damage, kidney damage and may
even cause death.
damage the brain, kidneys and the developing fetus, alter brain
Mercury functions, tremors, memory problems, irritability, and changes in
vision or hearing.
highly toxic to the kidney, skeletal damage, disturbances in calcium
Cadmium metabolism, severe damage to the lungs, stomach irritation and result
in vomiting and diarrhea.
irritates the skin and cause ulceration. Long-term exposure can cause
Chromium kidney and liver damage, and damage to circulatory and nerve tissue.
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MONITORING SCHEMES OF HEAVY METALS

• Many monitoring and sensing on-site techniques have been developed for

on-site detection of heavy metals in water.

• The working principle of these techniques may be based on

1. Optical detection

2. Electrochemical sensors

3. Bio detectors that involve ion selective electrodes

4. Piezoelectric sensors

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OPTICAL DETECTION OF HEAVY METAL

Fig.2 Illustration of the Fluoro-ionophore sensing mechanism

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Fig.3 Various types of ionophores used in optical sensing
Drawbacks of optical detection of heavy metals:

• Low sensitivity

• Long synthesis process

• Complex analysis

• Delay in the signal response

• Low selectivity and

• Reversibility of the process

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ELECTROCHEMICAL DETECTION OF HEAVY METALS

• Electrochemical detectors fulfil many advantages for the on-site monitoring

of contaminants as it is highly selective, rapid, sensitive, and low cost,
• The working principle of such sensors is based on having a transducing
element covered with recognition element, which can be either a biological
or a chemical element

Fig.4 Electrochemical sensors scheme

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 MICROFLUIDIC CHANNEL
• Microchannels can be considered as a via that encapsulates or move the fluids
from one part to another, its diameter ranges from 100 nanometers to several
hundred micrometers, which makes it very useful in mimicking the role of
capillaries in the micron scale.
• Microfluidics considerably
1. Decreases sample consumptions.
2. Reduces the overall costs of applications.
3. Run multiple analysis simultaneously.

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Fig.5 Microfluidic microchannel
 CAPACITIVE SENSOR

• Microfluidic platform can be used for sensing HMIs using a capacitive

microcantilever sensor .

• This type of sensor is called as surface stress-based biosensors (SSBS).

Fig.6 3D view of MEMS capacitive sensor

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Advantages of capacitive sensing:

• Non-contact sensing

• Not sensitive to material changes

• Sense different kinds of materials (skin, plastic, metal, liquid),

• Low power solution

• Less expensive

• Able to sense up to a large distance with small sensor sizes

• Higher resolutions including sub nanometre resolutions

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 LITERATURE SURVEY

• The paper dealt with capacitive microcantilever sensor for HMIs detection.
• The microcantilever is made by silicon nitride or polysilicon.
• They have used different lengths and thicknesses for both silicon nitride and
polysilicon
• They have decided that polysilicon cantilever with L=250µm, T=0.5µm is best
for the capacitive sensor to get higher capacitance variation with enough
strength of cantilever beam so that it can take the load of heavy metal ion.
------Dinesh Rotakea , Darji, “Heavy Metal Ion Detection in Water using
MEMS Based Sensor ”, Materials Today: Proceedings 5, 2018 12
• The SH-SAW sensor was designed and fabricated, with gold on a
piezoelectric substrate and a microfluidic channel was also fabricated.
• The results show the capability of the SH-SAW sensor to detect pico molar
concentrations of Hg and Ni in water.
• The above approach requires the experimental setup which cannot solve the
problem of portability and cost. Moreover, they are used to detect only one
analyte at a time.
-------Zeinab Ramshani, Binu B. Narakathu, Avuthu S. G. Reddy, Massood Z.
Atashbar , Jared T. Wabeke and Sherine O. Obare, “SH-SAW Based Sensor
for Heavy Metal Ion Detection”, IEEE, 2015.

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BLOCK DIAGRAM OF PROPOSED SYSTEM

Fig.7 Block diagram of proposed system

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 PLAN OF ACTION

• Studying the papers related to the heavy metal ion detection using different

sensors.

• Learning COMSOL Multiphysics.

• Designing the microfluidic channel and the microcantilever beam with

different possible structures.

• Designing a capacitive sensor.

• Documentation and publication.

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THANK YOU