Raina Jain
Riverside, CT
Age 15
Arsenic, a poisonous and highly toxic metal contaminant commonly found in our drinking water supply, is responsible for one of the top 5 non-accidental leading causes of death in the world. Currently, arsenic detection systems are not only time-consuming, but unaffordable by over 67% of the population. The goal of this experiment is to create a low cost, accurate, immediate, and visual detection system for arsenic contamination in water. Through the interaction of the electrostatically-coated nanoclusters with arsenic in solution, the magnetically-induced color change will vary with increasing arsenic content, so that a simple color-coding scheme can be used to predict as little as 1 ppb arsenic instantly, for as little as $2. All that is needed by the user is 2 mL of the non-hazardous photonic crystal structures, a disposable plastic pipette, 1 mL of the suspect contaminated water, and a 78 Gauss neodymium magnet. This low-cost detection system is greatly needed in countries like India and many in Africa where arsenic contamination causes millions of deaths each year. This cheap, rapid, and consumer-friendly detection system will greatly reduce this number.