AUTEX Research Journal (Dec 2022)

Wearable Design for Occupational Safety of Pb2+ Water Pollution Monitoring Based on Fluorescent CDs

  • Chen Han,
  • Xu Han,
  • Zhang Yudian,
  • Gu Shiguo,
  • Wang Dandan

DOI
https://doi.org/10.2478/aut-2022-0029
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 23, no. 3
pp. 403 – 408

Abstract

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The indiscriminate discharge of industrial and domestic wastewater leads to the pollution of production, living, and landscape waters with heavy metals, including Pb2+. To protect people working in environments with risk of water pollution by Pb2+, the Pb2+ chemosensor based on fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) was designed in this study. Based on quenching of the fluorescence of CDs via electron or energy transfer between Pb2+ and CDs, the sensor induces a significant “dark blue to light blue” fluorescence burst color change under the naked eye. Results suggest that the fluorescence intensity of CDs positively correlated with the concentrations of Pb2+ (R2 = 0.823–0.986), which is conducive to the detection of Pb2+-containing wastewater by CDs. On this basis, we integrated CD fluorescent sensors into wearable gloves via a mediated coating method. With no additional burden (off-site, long lead times, high cost, etc.), the designed wearable gloves enable front loading of the detection window for Pb2+-contaminated water to protect the wearer from poisoning. Eight watershed environmental occupants reported a 57.42% reduction in occupational anxiety after using our safety gloves. We believe that the proposed flexible and stable wearable sensing system will not only have great potential applications in Pb2+ field detection but also stimulate the development of other environmental pollution sensing devices.

Keywords