IIT Bhubaneswar develops hand-held device to detect arsenic

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bhubaneswar has innovated a device to detect arsenic that would help improve water quality monitoring and public health.

Researchers from the Sensors and Spectroscopy Research Group, School of Electrical and Computer Sciences (SECS), IIT Bhubaneswar, led by Sayan Dey have made significant advances in arsenic detection technologies, said the institute in a press release on Thursday (June 11, 2026).

Major concern in India

“The research focused on developing affordable, sensitive, and field-deployable solutions for detecting arsenic contamination in drinking water, which remains a major concern in many parts of India,” it said.

The team has developed a compact, portable and hand-held arsenic detection device named ‘ArsenSafe’ through Nano Semic Private Limited, a start-up incubated at the Research and Entrepreneurship Park, IIT Bhubaneswar.

ArsenSafe can accurately detect arsenic without the need for laboratory infrastructure and chemicals, making water-quality assessment faster and more accessible. Researchers said it was designed for rapid, cost-effective and on-site testing.

“Government agencies, public health departments, environmental monitoring organisations, water treatment providers, industries, NGOs and even individual consumers can deploy it,” IIT Bhubaneswar said.

High technology readiness level

The current prototype has achieved a sufficiently high Technology Readiness Level (TRL) and has been tested on the water sample from the IIT campus and adjacent areas.

“The device demonstrated a significant contribution towards improving human health and sanitation by carefully blending nanotechnology and machine learning,” said the institute.