Development of Field Deployable Sensor for Detection of Pesticide From Food Chain

The use of pesticides in agriculture field remains a serious issue related to public health. This necessitates the need to develop a low cost/portable, sensitive and selective bio-sensing platform for detection of pesticides in food chain. In this work a low-cost biosensing platform for ultrasensitive detection of chlorpyrifos (CPF) is developed. Electrochemical micro Paper Analytical Device (EμPAD) is fabricated by conventional screen-printing technology. Metal Organic Framework (Z1200 MOF) having zinc metal and imidazole ligand is used as a transducing element which facilitates biocompatible matrix for Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) enzyme immobilization. The limit of detection for CPF is found be 3 ng/L with sensitivity 0.521 kQ/ng L ^-1 /mm ² . The sensor required 100μL of reagent and was tested with a linear concentration range of 10 ng/L to 1000 ng/L with response time of 5s. The sensor is further integrated with portable electronics based on Arduino microcontroller and Artificial Intelligence (AI) which provided economical, portable and user-friendly sensing platform. The stability of the sensor was 30 days. The developed sensor was also tested with real samples and the sensor response is in agreement with conventional technique.