Development of an eco-sensor based on bilayer lipid membrane for the continuous monitoring of environmental pollutants

Abstract

In recent years, we have developed an advanced environmental monitoring system (AEMS) containing the eco-sensor, which means a sensor for the measurement of environmental pollutants, based on lipid membranes for continuous monitoring of ground water in industry areas such as semiconductor factories 1 . The AEMS project is composed of three work packages as follows, 1) Eco -sensor, 2) Prediction of plume propagation using a computer simulation technique, and 3) Environmental protection method. In this paper, we would like to focus on the study of the eco-sensor. We considered that modified lipid membranes serve as good models for cell membranes because they would be ideal hosts for receptor molecules of biological origin or disruptive environmental pollutants. Thus, we selected lipid membrane as a sensing element for environmental pollutants. We have already confirmed that the eco-sensor could detect a 10 ppb level of volatile organic chlorinated compounds (VOCs) such as trichloroethylene in ground water. Here, we tried to apply the eco-sensor to measure other environmental pollutants containing pesticides and endocrine disrupting chemicals. We made a novel automatic bilayer lipid membrane preparation device and a new system for the continuous measurement of environmental pollutants in ground water.