Highly porous magnetic microspheres can mop up toxic metals in samples for rapid detection of contaminated drinking water by using a modified electrode. The microspheres are based on an aluminum mineral used to modify silica/iron oxide particles. They enable glassy carbon electrodes (GCE) to detect toxic metal ions such as zinc, cadmium, lead, copper, mercury. The magnetic microspheres have a high capacity for adsorbing these ions, making the modified GCE both specific and sensitive to their presence in a water sample even at trace levels.

Detection of even trace quantities of these ions in drinking water is important as they can all accumulate in tissue and bone and have a long biological half-life of 10–15 years making them troublesome in terms of bioaccumulation.

• High adsorptive gamma-AlOOH(boehmite)@SiO₂/Fe₃O₄ porous magnetic microspheres for detection of toxic metal ions in drinking water
  Y. Wei, R. Yang, Y.-X. Zhang, L. Wang, J.-H. Liu, X.-J. Huang,
  Chem. Commun. 2011.
  DOI: 10.1039/C1CC14215A