IIT Bhubaneswar researchers develop portable device for accurate arsenic detection in water

Bhubaneswar: Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bhubaneswar have developed a portable device that can rapidly and accurately detect arsenic contamination in drinking water, offering a potential solution to a major public health challenge.The handheld device, named ArsenSafe, has been developed by Nano Semic, a startup led by faculty members Sayan Dey and Akshay K, and incubated at the Research and Entrepreneurship Park of IIT Bhubaneswar.Dey, who heads the Sensors and Spectroscopy Research Group at the School of Electrical and Computer Sciences (SECS), says the team's research has focused on developing affordable, sensitive and field-deployable technologies for arsenic detection in drinking water.The device uses a reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-based sensing system and is designed for easy operation with minimal training and set-up requirements, Dey says.According to the researchers, the device can be used by govt agencies, public health departments, environmental monitoring organisations, water treatment providers, industries, non-governmental organisations and even individual consumers."The prototype has already achieved a high Technology Readiness Level (TRL) and been successfully tested on water samples collected from the IIT Bhubaneswar campus and nearby areas," Dey says. The TRL is a method for estimating the maturity of technologies during the acquisition phase of a programme.The innovation assumes significance as arsenic contamination remains a major public health concern in several parts of India and across the world. In Odisha, a study by Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) had found arsenic concentrations exceeding the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) permissible limit of 0.01 mg/l in districts such as Gajapati, Ganjam, Bhadrak, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur.The innovation comes alongside international recognition for the research team. In a recent paper published in Environmental Science: Nano, a journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), Dey and his team, including researchers Arijit Pattra, Bathula Sathwik and Himanshu P Padole, presented the advanced microsensor based on reduced graphene oxide and its derivatives that can detect extremely low concentrations of arsenic in drinking water, in line with World Health Organisation safety standards.The study integrates nanotechnology with machine learning to enhance the accuracy and sensitivity of arsenic detection. Recognising the significance of the work, the journal's editorial board has invited the paper to be featured in its special themed collection on ‘Nanosensing’.