Abstract
The amount of chemicals produced is increasing every year resulting in a higher amount of endocrine disrupting chemicals such as phenols (12 million tonnes in 2016). Phenols are used in, for example, the production of plastics, resins and as antibacterial agents. These chemicals find their way into the water and cause detrimental effects on both human and wildlife health. Although efforts have been made to raise awareness on the toxicity of these contaminants, there is still no strict regulation for phenols. Consequently, there is a need for on-site powerful screening techniques to monitor these phenols, and to outcompete commercial test kits with have a long measurement time and are non-selective and not sensitive enough. Therefore, my aim is to develop a highly sensitive and selective mobile electrosensor for the detection of phenols in industrial wastewater, based on a combination of photoelectrochemistry and voltammetry. The mobile sensor has a rapid response, is cheap, easy-to-use and the results can be easily interpreted by non-trained staff by the use of an app on a smartphone together with a wireless potentiostat.
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