# Graphene-based Nanosensor Device for Rapid, Onsite Detection of Total Lead in Tap Water

> **NIH NIH R44** · NANOAFFIX SCIENCE, LLC · 2020 · $719,088

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Detrimental health impacts of lead are largely attributed to long-term exposures to undetected lead, which are
particularly troublesome and problematic because of the neurological damage to children, a situation that should
not be tolerated by an advanced society like the U.S. The Flint Water Crisis and many other water catastrophes
could have been avoided if early warning can be made possible through timely detection of lead in drinking water
at the point of use. Our extensive customer interviews unambiguously suggest that current options for lead
detection are unsatisfactory for on-site testing, as they represent two extremes: one being accurate but
expensive, slow, and hard to use; and the other being low-cost, fast, and easy to use but inaccurate.
NanoAffix Science LLC (NAFX) proposes to address the above unmet need and niche market product gap
by empowering water users (particularly those in economically disadvantaged communities) and water service
providers with a low-cost, easy-to-use, and accurate handheld tester for rapid detection of total lead in the tap
water, right from the kitchen sink. The handheld lead tester combines a novel proprietary micro-sized sensor
chip embedded in a proprietary test cell with a portable digital meter for direct readout of testing results. The
Phase I project has successfully established the feasibility for detection of soluble lead in the tap water using
an earlier version of the prototype handheld tester. The Phase II project will continue to develop the handheld
tester toward total lead detection, better device uniformity, pilot scale-up manufacturing, and accurate calibration.
At the end of the Phase II project, NAFX plans to produce 20 beta units of the handheld lead tester meeting all
performance specifications for field validation by 10 initial customers (e.g., schools/daycares, end water users,
and well water drillers). Major innovations of the proposed approach include accurate prediction of the particulate
lead through partial digestion based on lead digestion kinetics, and strategic and synergistic improvement of the
ultimate sensor prediction accuracy by (1) improving the physical sensor device uniformity (both intra-wafer and
inter-wafer) through innovative device configuration and rigorous quality control; and (2) improving the calibration
accuracy through innovative theoretical equilibrium chemistry modeling and machine learning data analytics.
The NAFX handheld lead tester is the first of its kind to (1) offer all three features sought by customers: accurate,
cheap, and fast; and (2) to simultaneously report all three types of lead: total lead (indicative of overall toxicity),
soluble lead (indicative of slow leaching of lead), and particulate lead (indicative of sporadic flaking of lead),
which thus can not only alert customers to the lead hazard in their drinking water but also enable customers to
identify possible causes and most effective solutions to mitigate the lead c...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10024064
- **Project number:** 5R44ES028656-03
- **Recipient organization:** NANOAFFIX SCIENCE, LLC
- **Principal Investigator:** James Curtis Hill
- **Activity code:** R44 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $719,088
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-08-15 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10024064

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10024064, Graphene-based Nanosensor Device for Rapid, Onsite Detection of Total Lead in Tap Water (5R44ES028656-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10024064. Licensed CC0.

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