Development of photocatalytic biosensor for the evaluation of biochemical oxygen demand

The photocatalytic biosensor of flow system using semiconductor TiO 2 was developed to evaluate biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) levels in river water. Photocatalysis of sample was carried out in a photoreactor with TiO 2 and a 6 W black-light blue fluorescent tube as light source. Sample from a photoreactor outlet was measured by an oxygen electrode with a biofilm. The sensor response of photocatalytic biosensor was between 5 and 10 min depending on concentration of biochemical in the samples. At BOD of 1 mg l −1, the sensor response increased 1.33-fold in comparison with that without photocatalysis. The degradation of tannic acid and humic acid with photocatalysis were 51.8 and 38.4%, respectively. Gum arabic and linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS) were degraded a little, but gave the responses of more than double to the sensor. Free radicals yielded by photocatalysis in a photoreactor did not affect the sensor response because their lifetime is extremely short. Fairly good correlation ( r = 0.983) between the sensor method and the conventional method was obtained for test samples. This biosensor using photocatalytic pretreatment improved the sensitivity.