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Contamination of natural bodies of water with oil and lubricants (or generally, hydrocarbon derivatives such as petrol, fuel and others) is a commonly found phenomenon around the world due to the extensive production, transfer and use of fossil fuels. The timely identification of these contaminants is of utmost importance, since they directly affect water quality and represent a risk for wildlife and human health even in trace amounts.
In this work, we develop a simple system for the on-field detection of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) in water and soil, the "Spectrocube". The test is based on the measurement of the fluorescence signal emitted by the molecular rotor 4-DNS-OH dye. This dye is embedded in a hydrophobic polymeric matrix (PVDF), avoiding interactions of water with the dye and providing a robust support for use in test-strip fashion. The test-strip’s fluorescence intensity increases linearly at low concentrations of TPH, reaching a saturation value at higher concentrations.
For excitation and evaluation of the test-strip fluorescence, a simple miniature optical system was designed. The system works semi-quantitatively as solvent-free TPH detection kit, as well as quantitatively when using a simple cyclopentane extraction step. To simplify the fluorescence read-out, the device is coupled to a tablet computer via Bluetooth, running a self-programmed software ("app").
Contamination of natural bodies of water or soil with oils and lubricants (or generally, hydrocarbon derivatives such as petrol, fuels, and others) is a commonly found phenomenon around the world due to the extensive production, transfer, and use of fossil fuels. In this work, we develop a simple system for the on-field detection of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) in water and soil. The test is based on the measurement of the fluorescence signal emitted by the molecular rotor 2-[ethyl[4-[2-(4-nitrophenyl)ethenyl]phenyl]amino]ethanol (4-DNS-OH). This dye is embedded in a hydrophobic polymeric matrix (polyvinylidene fluoride), avoiding interactions with water and providing a robust support for use in a test strip fashion. Together with the strips, an embedded optical system was designed for fluorescence signal read-out, featuring a Bluetooth low-energy connection to a commercial tablet device for data processing and analysis. This system works for the detection and quantification of TPHs in water and soil through a simple extraction protocol using a cycloalkane solvent with a limit of detection of 6 ppm. Assays in surface and sea waters were conclusive, proving the feasibility of the method for in-the-field operation.