Disposable tube detectors for water analysis

A method to produce a new type of disposable tube detector for water analysis is described. The tube detectors are composed of capillaries filled with sol-gel glasses doped with organic reagents. When a solution is sampled through a tube detector, specific contaminants form chromophoric groups with the organic reagents that are embedded in the sol-gel glasses, forming a stained section of the glass bed. The specific advantages of doped sol-gel glasses for use as disposable tube detectors include transparency, low cost, low leaching and easy control of the glass characteristics, including ligand capacity, pore-size distribution and pellet dimensions. Detection of several metals in aqueous solution is demonstrated.