Abstract
Ph.D. (Chemistry)
The use of polydiacetylene (PDA) for colorimetric detection of substances was evaluated. The scope of the investigation included chemical modification of commercial diacetylene (DA) with various ligands with the purpose of installing new properties and abilities, or improving the inherent ones. Based on these properties, the application of the new compound to the colorimetric detection or monitoring of a targeted chemical or physical target was studied. The main motivation of this study was the advancement of the scientific effort towards smaller, cheaper and easy-to-use analytical tools that can be used to detect, identify and/or monitor substances. This work focused primarily on the colorimetric monitoring of physical targets such as heat (temperature) and the detection of heavy metal ions in water.
In a world where water pollution by heavy metals is of major concern, as it poses a serious threat to the health of humans, animals and plants, the detection and monitoring of this form of pollutants in water systems is essential. Heavy metals are essential components of many technologies that we use in our daily lives. Improper disposal of products containing heavy metals, and natural processes, contribute significantly to the pollution of water systems by heavy metals.
Currently, expensive techniques such as inductively-coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) are used as tools for the detection and monitoring of heavy metals. These techniques require highly skilled personnel and are time consuming. This study forms part of an on-going effort to prepare simple and cheap sensors for heavy metal ions detection in water by making them visible to the human eye. PDAs promise a faster and easier way of detection due to their ability to switch between colours once exposed to stimuli. It was the objective of this study to modify PDAs with...