Reduced graphene oxide decorated with gold nanoparticles through thermal diffusion coated on silicon wafer for simlutaneous determination of trace heavy metals

• Main Author: Lim, Elton Hongsen
• Other Authors: Liu Erjia
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/68637
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Water is an important fundamental of life on Earth. It makes up about 71% of the Earth’s surface and plays an important role in the survival of living things in this massive ecosystem. However, there is a growing concern with water that is presented to us for consumption. Due to the lack of proper treatment and the emergence of heavily industrialized countries, trace metal ions are often deposited into water bodies around the world. The presence of Lead and Cadmium in the water bodies poses a great threat to our bodies whenever we consume them. This is especially harmful to people in countries like Singapore that relies so much on water imports and recycled water from our environment. This study aims to improve on rGO-Nafion on Silicon wafers to detect these harmful trace heavy metal ions. Gold sputter of varying thickness from 50 nm to 200 nm would be coated. Several ways of microscopy were used in this study to characterize the rGO samples. The square wave anodic stripping voltammetry (SWASV) technique was introduced to research on the optimal conditions for detection of these trace metal ions. The rGO-Nafion samples were used in this technique as working electrodes for stripping voltammetry.