A Smartphone-Based Sensing System for On-Site Quantitation of Multiple Heavy Metal Ions Using Fluorescent Carbon Nanodots-Based Microarrays

The development of cost-effective and versatile sensing system for simultaneous and rapid quantitation of multiple targets is highly demanded for environmental surveillance, food safety inspection, home healthcare, etc. This work reports on (1) paper-based microarrays relying on fluorescence turn-off of carbon nanodots (CDs) for analyte recognition and (2) a stand-alone smartphone-based portable reader (SBR) installed with a custom-designed APP (SBR-App), which can accurately and reproducibly acquire fluorescence change from the microarray chip, automatically report the results, generate and share the reports via wireless network. Simultaneous detection of Hg²⁺, Pb²⁺, and Cu²⁺ in the Pearl River water samples was achieved with the reported sensing system. End-user operation is limited to pipet samples to the microarray chip, insert the chip to the SBR, and open the SBR-App to acquire an image 5 min after sample introduction. There is no requirement for complicated sample pre-treatment and expensive equipment except for a smartphone. This versatile and cost-effective smartphone-based sensing system featured with reliability and simplicity is ideally suited for user- and eco-friendly point-of-need detection in resource-constrained environments.