URJC researchers have managed to prepare an electrochemical sensor to analyse pharmaceuticals in waters

During the last year of the AVANSECAL-CM project, researchers of the URJC have been working to develop an efficient sensor based on a carbon paste electrode modified with amino-functionalized mesostructured silica. The sensor was successfully applied, for the first time, to the simultaneous determination of three β-blockers (pindolol, acebutolol and metoprolol) in tap water, mineral water, river water and sewage effluent water. These compounds belongs to an important group of emerging contaminants (pharmaceuticals) that are found in drinking-, environmental- and waste-waters, due to they are only partially eliminated by wastewater treatment plants. In this sense, the sensor prepared was found to be an excellent alternative for the rapid, simple, sensitive and in situ determination of these pollutants in waters. This research work has been published in the Sensors & Actuators, B: Chemical journal (doi: 10.1016/j.snb.2018.12.058.)