AMOLF researchers, led by Lukas Helmbrecht, developed a perovskite-based Lead test 1,000 times more sensitive than existing methods. Luminescent green light reveals Lead on various surfaces. The innovation led to Lumetallix, providing affordable kits for global health impact.
AMOLF researchers have used the special properties of perovskite semiconductors to develop a simple spray test to demonstrate the presence of lead. Perovskite is a material suitable for use in LEDs and solar cells, for example.
A lead-containing surface shines bright green when it is sprayed with the test. This test is 1,000 times more sensitive than existing tests and the researchers found no false positive or false negative results. The study was published on November 27 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
“We have hijacked the technology of perovskite semiconductors and used it in a widely deployable lead test. Nobody in this discipline had ever thought of that,” says Lukas Helmbrecht, researcher at the group Self-Organizing Matter led by Wim Noorduin at AMOLF. “We are very pleased with these results,” says Noorduin. “It is a really cool project and it is quite rare for fundamental research to literally impact the entire world with an application.”
Read the full article on physc.org
Lead contamination and exposure can cause “ profound and permanent ” impacts, including brain damage in children, and increased risk of kidney damage, cardiovascular disease, and miscarriage, according to the World Health Organization.
While known contamination is relatively easy to mitigate, the detection itself can be a tricky proposition. Standard methods can only detect lead if it’s isolated and concentrated first.
Now, researchers at Amolf, a research institute dedicated to studying the physics of matter, have developed a spray-on reagent that signals the presence of even tiny amounts of lead by lighting up fluorescent green under a UV light within seconds. Comprised of methyl ammonium bromide in isopropanol, it reacts with lead to form a photoluminescent lead bromide perovskite (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2023, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c06058) .
Read the full article on cen.acs.org
Lumetallix werd recent besproken in de BNR Nieuwsradio podcast over innovatieve technologieën voor het detecteren van loodvervuiling.
Over de aflevering
Deze week werden de winnaars van de Amsterdam Science Innovation Award bekend gemaakt. Eén van de kanshebbers is Lukas Helmbrecht, van de UvA en AMOLF. Hij heeft iets ontwikkeld waarmee loodvervuiling heel makkelijk en goedkoop gedetecteerd kan worden.
We bespreken hoe groot het probleem met loodvervuiling is en welke oplossing hij onder de naam Lumetallix heeft ontwikkeld.
Lees hier meer over de Amsterdam Science Innovation Award
Luister de volledige aflevering op bnr.nl of luister hier:
Amolf-onderzoekers hebben de bijzondere eigenschappen van perovskiet-halfgeleiders gebruikt om een eenvoudige spuittest te ontwikkelen om de aanwezigheid van lood aan te tonen. Een loodhoudend oppervlak glanst heldergroen als het met de test wordt besproeid.
De test is 1000 keer gevoeliger dan bestaande tests en de onderzoekers vonden geen vals-positieve of vals-negatieve resultaten. De studie werd gepubliceerd in het wetenschappelijke tijdschrift Environmental Science and Technology.
We hebben de technologie van perovskiethalfgeleiders gekaapt
“We hebben de technologie van perovskiethalfgeleiders gekaapt en gebruikt in een breed inzetbare leadtest. Niemand in dit vakgebied had daar ooit aan gedacht”, zegt Lukas Helmbrecht, onderzoeker bij de groep Self-Organizing Matter die wordt geleid door Wim Noorduin bij Amolf. “Wij zijn erg blij met deze resultaten”, zegt Noorduin. “Het is een heel gaaf project en het komt zelden voor dat fundamenteel onderzoek met een toepassing letterlijk de hele wereld beïnvloedt.”
Read the full article on engineersonline.nl
Toxicologie Een simpele spraytest toont gevoelig en onmiddellijk aan of een voorwerp vervuild is met lood. De vinding is een bijvangst uit het onderzoek naar loodvrije leds en zonnepanelen. „Wij hebben de gedachte omgedraaid.
‘We hebben de spray op allerlei gebruiksvoorwerpen uitgeprobeerd, het was voor ons verrassend in hoeveel alledaagse dingen lood zit”, zegt chemicus Lukas Helmbrecht.
Ook een theepot van mijn huisgenoot lichtte fel groen op. Die wordt dus niet meer gebruikt. Best jammer, het was een geliefde theepot.
De spray waardoor de theepot is verbannen detecteert lood. Helmbrecht ontwikkelde de spray samen met zijn collega Wim Noorduin van natuurkundig onderzoeksinstituut Amolf in Amsterdam. Ook de mooie wijnglazen die de ouders van Noorduin jarenlang bewaarden zullen nooit meer gebruikt worden, concludeerde hij na gebruik van de spray. De looddetectiespray bestaat uit een oplossing met methylammoniumbromide, dat reageert meteen als het in contact komt met een loodverbinding. Bij die reactie wordt een loodperovskiet gevormd, een specifieke kristalstructuur, dat groen oplicht wanneer het met uv-licht wordt beschenen.
Het is een nieuwe en verrassende toepassing van perovskiet, dat vooral onderzocht wordt als halfgeleidermateriaal voor zonnecellen en leds. Vorige week publiceerden Noorduin en Helmbrecht met enkele andere Amolfpromovendi over hun vinding in het tijdschrift Environmental Science and Technology.
Het opsporen van loodverontreiniging is nuttig, want blootstelling aan lood komt veel voor en kan ernstige gevolgen hebben voor de gezondheid. In 2020 bleek uit onderzoek van Unicef en milieustichting Pure Earth dat 800 miljoen kinderen wereldwijd een loodvergiftiging hebben. Het loodgehalte in hun bloed is meer dan 5 microgram per deciliter, een grens waarboven volgens de wereldgezondheidsorganisatie actie moet worden ondernomen.
Read the full article on nrc.nl
Toxic metals, carcinogenic substances, and much more nicotine than is legally allowed. That’s what’s in vapes that are frequently smoked by Dutch youngsters, according to research by RTL Nieuws. We examined unwrapped vapes that ten high schools from across the country sent to our editors upon request. Experts call the results “extremely worrisome”. “This research shows for the first time that Dutch children are using vapes that are poisoning their own bodies and brains.
“Some of the results are bizarre”, states Remco Westerink, a toxicologist at Utrecht University, after studying the findings. “If you consider that children with undeveloped brains use it, this is really a harmful product.”
Many Dutch people vape, even at a very young age. October revealed that one in five young people between 12 and 25 had vaped at some point in the past year, ranging from once a month to every day. This is partly why the government introduced stricter regulations: since Jan. 1, it has been illegal to sell a flavored vape. Yet it is still easy to get one, which is why many young people still do it.
Vaping is not allowed in most high schools, which is why they have a rule that teachers take away vapes if students are caught smoking an e-cigarette.
RTL News asked high schools across the country if they would send the vapes they picked up to our editors. We had a selection of them examined by a specialized laboratory in Liverpool, UK. There, the liquid in the vapes was analyzed and the vapor inhaled when smoking the vape was tested. This shows the following:
But what does this mean? Toxicologist Westerink is clear about that: “This shows that there are many different harmful substances in vapes. That is worrying in itself, but when you consider that these vapes were used by children with still developing brains, this is really a harmful product.”
That there was too much nicotine in the vape in almost half of the cases is one of the most striking findings, according to Westerink. “There are even vapes among them with an amount of nicotine from 200 to 400 cigarettes.” And that can lead to major problems. For example, nicotine can interfere with brain development, cause concentration problems and mood swings, and is very addictive.
In fact, one vape tested contained 11 times more nicotine than the legally permitted amount of 20 milligrams per milliliter of liquid. Westerink: “If you keep smoking such a vape continuously, and would finish it in one go, it is without a doubt serious for your health and it could even be deadly.”
Esther Croes, a tobacco expert at the Trimbos Institute, is “horrified” by these numbers. “20 milligrams, the legal maximum and intended for smokers, is already bizarre for children. But these vapes are also much larger than allowed and have much more nicotine. That’s indescribable. And then they are also produced and sold in an attractive form to children.”
The Trimbos Institute knows from questionnaire surveys that many Dutch youths vape and foreign research recently revealed that there may be harmful substances in vapes. Croes states that RTL News’ research “brings these two data together for the first time.
“Now it is rock solid evidence that the vapes used by Dutch children also contain so many harmful substances. Heavy metals, huge amounts of nicotine, and other toxic and carcinogenic substances. Your research shows that Dutch children are poisoning their bodies and brains with these vapes.”
In addition to the large amounts of nicotine, toxicologist Westerink calls it extremely problematic that lead was found in the vapes used by children. “Lead is a heavy metal, a toxic substance which is particularly harmful to the development of the brain. In addition, it can cause a decrease in IQ of up to five points. You really don’t want this in vapes.”
Possibly the lead is released through the heating coil, wires, and solder joints in the vape, explains researcher Tom Coleman of the Inter Scientific laboratory: “For example, some solder in vapes is of a cheaper, poorer quality with more lead. We typically see that in vapes from manufacturers from China.”
The substance formaldehyde, normally used as a disinfectant, is also likely to be released during the burning process in the vape. The aggressive substance was found in 7 of the 20 vapes examined. Westerink: “This is dangerous. At high doses, this is a carcinogenic substance that can damage cells. Of course, you don’t want children to ingest this either. Even at low doses, it can cause respiratory irritation and inflame the airways.”
Toxicologist Jan Tytgat also looked at the research results at the request of RTL News. Working at the Belgian University in Leuven and specializing in e-cigarettes, he also states that formaldehyde is a carcinogen. He additionally calls it a substance of concern “that you should absolutely avoid.”
According to him, the same goes for the other substances found in the vapes: “Nickel can cause all kinds of allergies. Acrolein is an irritant to the skin and lungs. And acetone can cause headaches, confusion, and a feeling of unease.”
In addition, all of the vapes examined had a larger capacity than allowed by law. Simply put, a vape may hold 600 puffs, but all the vapes examined were well above that. Some even had 15,000 puffs.
Westerink calls the research “an eye opener”: “Despite the ban, these flavored vapes can still be found in the schoolyard. That it now turns out that there are these harmful substances in there, sometimes in high quantities, hopefully, helps raise awareness that a vape is not a safe but an extremely undesirable product.”
Esther Croes of Trimbos agrees: “These are substances that can turn your body upside down for the rest of your life because they can cause damage in all sorts of places in your body. Together we must protect children to the maximum and do everything we can to make them resilient. After all, our youth have a whole future ahead of them and must be able to grow up healthy. These results emphasize that we do have a real problem in the Netherlands.”
Source: RTL.
You’ve probably heard about potential lead contamination in tumblers, drinking water, chocolate, packaged lunches, and even baby food. The cause for concern is justified. Lead is a potent neurotoxin, and there’s no safe level to ingest. The metal is particularly harmful to childhood development.
The good news is that in the United States, lead can no longer be added to many common products. Consequently, instances of lead poisoning among children have declined significantly over the past several decades.
Yet lead still persists on stuff we come into contact with every day, like old paint, dishes, and water pipes. Lead can also show up in food products and cosmetics via contamination. This often happens in cheap imported goods from countries with fewer regulations.
Unfortunately, if you are curious or concerned about lead being in something you own, most home-testing options are limited. Even tests recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency have been difficult to use. They are often prone to user error and expensive per test.
But what if an instant, easy-to-use, precise, and readily available test existed? Imagine a test that allowed users to conduct literally hundreds of tests at a much lower cost than traditional methods.
I had this question until I came upon a method that produces a neon-green glow when the metal is present. You also may have seen lead-safety influencers popping up on your social media feeds promoting different ways of testing at home. One such method is Lumetallix. The company sells a simple kit comprising a spray or droplet bottle and a UV flashlight. Just spritz or drop some testing liquid onto a surface, and then pass a UV light over it. If the surface glows neon green, then the surface contains lead.
Before you start scanning your vintage glassware and chipping paint, however, there are a few important things to remember about this method. These tips will help you test strategically to keep you and your loved ones safe.
The problem with testing for lead at home is that most tests on the market have a high cost per test. They’re also time-consuming and fiddly, requiring swabs, pipettes, or test tubes. They can occasionally deliver inaccurate results. Furthermore, they can’t detect lead at very low thresholds that may still pose a health risk.
For years, the most widely available EPA-recognized lead test was 3M’s LeadCheck. This was a tube that you crack to activate, rub onto the test surface, and watch for a color change. For EPA recognition, this test required a professional to administer it.
3M no longer manufactures this test, but cheaper versions are widely available on Amazon. They typically contain an orange-yellow swab of the same chemical. However, they are known for being unreliable, as The New York Times reported during the Stanley tumbler scare in January 2024.
Although the neon-green testing method used by Lumetallix is not yet EPA-recognized, it purportedly produces no false positives. This is because the solution reacts only with lead. This method can detect as little as a single nanogram of lead. This makes it significantly more sensitive than swab tests, according to Lumetallix.
The test’s signature glow is due to a compound called methylammonium bromide in the kit’s spray or droplet bottle. Wim Noorduin, a chemist at the Dutch research center AMOLF, helped develop Lumetallix. He told me in a video interview that this colorless salt bonds with lead crystals to form a kind of compound known as a perovskite. These perovskites act as a semiconductor and glow green when you expose them to UV light.
According to Noorduin, these methylammonium bromide tests are 10 times more sensitive than the D-Lead two-part solution tests recognized by the EPA.
Read the full article on www.nytimes.com
Chemical reacts with Lead instantly to form fluorescent perovskite
Lead contamination and exposure can cause “ profound and permanent ” impacts, including brain damage in children, and increased risk of kidney damage, cardiovascular disease, and miscarriage, according to the World Health Organization. While known contamination is relatively easy to mitigate, the detection itself can be a tricky proposition. Standard methods can only detect Lead if it’s isolated and concentrated first.
Now, researchers at Amolf, a research institute dedicated to studying the physics of matter, have developed a spray-on reagent that signals the presence of even tiny amounts of Lead by lighting up fluorescent green under a UV light within seconds. Comprised of methyl ammonium bromide in isopropanol, it reacts with Lead to form a photoluminescent Lead bromide perovskite (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2023, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c06058).
“We can even spot nanograms of Lead in laboratory conditions”
Gabriel Filippelli, a biogeochemist at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, who wasn’t involved in study but did test a beta version of the spray, says that it is both sensitive, quick, and accurate, detecting Lead in a way that is obvious to the eye. According to the researchers, the reagent does not react with similar metals like tin or copper, and it can detect Lead on glass, plastic, concrete, soil, metal, paint, and more. “We can [even] spot nanograms of Lead in laboratory conditions,” says Wim Noorduin, the Lead author of the study. The color emitted by the perovskite depends on the halide; bromide causes it to appear green.
“What’s special about our [test] is that we . . . just do it in the environment,” Noorduin says. In fact, the researchers were surprised by the versatility and robustness of the reaction, which detects Lead in different oxidation states and with different counter ions. The researchers spent two years developing the reagent, but for a different use—to make perovskites from the calcium carbonate in the shell of creatures like sea urchins. They discovered its potential as a Lead detector by accident, when Noorduin took it home and happened to spray it on his neighbors’ roof.
Read the full article on cen.acs.org
Notre-Dame Cathedral is one of France’s most famous landmarks. Located on Île de la Cité island in Paris, its construction took nearly 200 years and was completed in the 14th century. On April 15th, 2019, a fire ravaged its roof and its spire, spreading around huge amounts of lead. French President Emmanuel Macron then pledged to rebuild the cathedral before the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Prior to the fire, the roof of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, undergoing renovations at the time, held approximately 460 tons of lead. It is estimated that 150kg of lead was released into the smoke during the fire. Following the accident, surface soil samples were collected within a 1 km radius of the cathedral, and air quality measurements were conducted at a station located 50km from the cathedral. The results indicated elevated levels of lead.
In the aftermath of the fire, the AFVS (Association of Families Victims of Lead Poisoning) embarked on a campaign to warn the population about the risks of lead exposure. Mathé Toullier, president of the association, and Annie Thébaud-Mony, a health sociologist, explained that few precautions were taken during and after the fire: on-site firefighters and police did not wear appropriate protection, nor did the employees mobilized afterward to clear the debris. Lead concentrations during the cleanup sometimes reached levels 100 to 1000 times higher than those recommended by the Public Health Regulations. A specialized decontamination design office commissioned by the Ministry of Culture also recommended the cathedral’s lockdown and decontamination, a project finally buried to the detriment of public health.
In a research article published in GeoHealth, Alexander Van Geen, a professor at Columbia University, states:
“Our surface soil data collected 9–10 months after the fire show that the population residing within 1 km and downwind of the fire was probably considerably more exposed to Pb fallout, albeit for a brief period, than indicated by measurements and surveys conducted by local authorities weeks to months later.”
After the fire, few measures were taken to protect children from the risks of lead exposure: no health instructions in nurseries and schools, and it took months for lead blood level tests to be conducted in children.
As reported by the Basta! newspaper, during the summer following the fire, samples were taken in several schools at the request of families and associations. In certain playgrounds, lead levels were found to be 5 to 18 times higher than the average in the streets of the capital. The affected schools were temporarily closed for cleaning of the premises.
In children, 50% of ingested lead is absorbed, compared to 5 to 10% in adults. Children are particularly vulnerable because they often put their hands to their mouths, and also because their nervous and skeletal systems are still developing. Lead exposure can create behavioral disorders, hearing and growth troubles, leading to abdominal pain, fatigue, memory loss, learning difficulties, anorexia, sleep disorders, and anxiety.
President Emmanuel Macron announced his intention to rebuild the cathedral before the opening of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Donations poured in from all around the world to fund the monument’s reconstruction.
On April 15th, 2024, five years after the fire, members of the AFVS association along with other activists gathered in front of the cathedral to protest against the presence of lead in the monument’s reconstruction. Indeed, despite health risks, the government decided that the cathedral’s roof and spire should be rebuilt identically, using lead.
This decision appears perplexing on multiple fronts. Firstly, people are aware of the toxicity of lead. Secondly, less hazardous alternatives such as zinc could readily serve as substitutes. Thirdly, given the likely lead exposure and potential health impact caused by the Notre Dame Cathedral fire, this decision seems even more puzzling. Haven’t we learned anything from this? It’s ironic, especially because the French Social Security system recognizes lead poisoning as a work-related illness!
Sources: GeoHealth, Santé Publique France, ActuParis, Basta!
As seen on New York Times
