Simultaneous Electrochemical Detection of Cu 2+ and Zn 2+ in Pig Farm Wastewater.

In recent years, the rapid development of pig farming has led to a large quantity of heavy metal-polluted wastewater. Thus, it was desirable to develop a simple heavy metal detection method for fast monitoring of the wastewater from the pig farms. Therefore, there was an urgent need to develop a simple method for rapidly detecting heavy metal ions in pig farm wastewater. Herein, a simple electrochemical method for simultaneous detection of Cu ²⁺ and Zn ²⁺ was developed and applied to pig farm wastewater. With a glassy carbon electrode and anodic stripping voltammetry, simultaneous detection of Cu ²⁺ and Zn ²⁺ in water was achieved without the need for complicated electrode modification. Furthermore, it was found that the addition of Cd ²⁺ can enhance the response current of the electrode to Zn ²⁺ , which increased the signal by eight times. After systematic optimization, the limit of detection (LOD) of 9.3 μg/L for Cu ²⁺ and 45.3 μg/L for Zn ²⁺ was obtained. Finally, it was successfully applied for the quantification of Cu ²⁺ and Zn ²⁺ with high accuracy in pig farm wastewater. This work provided a new and simple solution for fast monitoring of the wastewater from pig farms and demonstrated the potential of electrochemical measurement for application in modern animal husbandry.