Discrimination of trace heavy-metal ions by filtration on sol-gel membrane arrays

Abstract

A heavy sensation! A colorimetric method was investigated for the determination of heavy-metal ions. A sensor array consisting of five indicators was developed for the sensitive detection of eight heavy-metal ions at standard concentrations of wastewater discharge (see graphic). The array provides facile identification of these ions by a standard chemometric approach; no misclassifications were found in the 45 trials. © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.