Skip to main content
Log in

Sensitivity limits of biosensors used for the detection of metals in drinking water

  • Review
  • Published:
Biophysical Reviews Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Even when present in very low concentrations, certain metal ions can have significant health impacts depending on their concentration when present in drinking water. In an effort to detect and identify trace amounts of such metals, environmental monitoring has created a demand for new and improved methods that have ever-increasing sensitivities and selectivity. This paper reviews the sensitivities of over 100 recently published biosensors using various analytical techniques such as fluorescence, voltammetry, inductively coupled plasma techniques, spectrophotometry and visual colorimetric detection that display selectivity for copper, cadmium, lead, mercury and/or aluminium in aqueous solutions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

All authors wrote, revised and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vangelis George Kanellis.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

Vangelis George Kanellis declares that he has no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by the author.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kanellis, V.G. Sensitivity limits of biosensors used for the detection of metals in drinking water. Biophys Rev 10, 1415–1426 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12551-018-0457-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12551-018-0457-9

Keywords

Navigation