Water Monitoring

Water contaminants, such as heavy metals, microbes, PFAS, and pesticides, can permeate through multiple pathways, causing significant harm to human health and ecosystems and resulting in widespread disruptions and negative consequences. Due to simplicity and versatility in handling water samples, microfluidic devices can be used for detection of heavy metals, toxins, and contaminants such as pesticides in small samples of water from rivers, lakes, and groundwater sources.

What We Can Do for You

STEMart uses microfluidics technology to offer a comprehensive water monitoring services which include but not limit to:

Heavy Metals Detection

Heavy metals can be introduced into water sources by multiple activities such as mining, tanning, industrial waste disposal, fossil fuel burning, use of heavy metal-containing pesticides and fertilizers, etc. The content of heavy metals exceeding safe limits can have severe health consequences due to the mutagenic or carcinogenic properties of heavy metals. Microfluidic system can integrate multiple detection techniques such as colorimetric, electrochemical, fluorescence, potentiometry, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), resonance frequency variation, differential resistance, spectrometry, microabsorbance, etc. to detect the following heavy metals: Cu, Ni, Cr, Hg, As, Pb, Sb, Cd, Ag, etc.

Nutrients Detection

Excess nutrients in the water from agriculture runoff, wastewater runoff, or industrial discharges can result in severe environmental impacts. Nutrient overload can lead to decreased oxygen levels for aquatic life and eventual aquatic death. Therefore, monitoring nutrients in our water systems is critical to understanding overall water quality and sources of pollution.

STEMart uses colorimetric-based, ionogel-based microfluidic system to measure the content of various of nutrients in water samples.

• Nitrate
• Nitrite
• Ammonia nitrogen
• Phosphate
• Silicate

Pesticides Detection

Water sources are susceptible to pesticides contamination through agricultural runoff. Exposure to pesticides will lead to both acute and chronic effects, such as asthma, hormone disruption, cancer, neurological issues, and more.

STEMart can provide accurate detection of common pesticides utilizing microfluidics integrated with detection techniques including enzyme inhibition, immunoassays, molecular imprinting.

• Organophosphates
• Carbamates
• Organochlorines

Microorganisms Detection

Monitoring of waterborne pathogens is important for ensuring public health and safety. STEMart can use microfluidic system integrated with multiple detection methods such as colorimetric, electrochemical, fluorescence, luminescence, colony counting, SERS, PCR, impedimetric, particulometry, loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), etc. to detect the presence of various of microorganisms including:

• E. coli
• Pseudomonas taiwanensis
• Bacteroidales
• Staphylococcus aureus
• Salmonella enteritidis
• Salmonella typhimurium
• Staphylococcus epidermidis
• Enterococcus faecalis
• Norovirus
• Zika virus, etc.

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Detection

PFAS has a wide of application in our daily life. The majority of PFAS (95%) are released into aquatic environments. Therefore, it is crucial to detect PFAS in water. STEMart is able to identify and quantify multiple types of PFAS on a specially designed microfluidic platform.

For more information about our water monitoring service, please contact us.