Production of a monoclonal antibody and development of an immunoassay for detection of Cr(III) in water samples

In this study we report the production of a monoclonal antibody (Mab) specific for Cr(III)-chelate and the development of a competitive immunoassay for detection of Cr(III) in water samples. In the assay, the complete antigen (Cr(III)-ITCBE-BSA) was used as coating antigen, and Cr(III)-ITCBE as competitor competes with coating antigen to bind with Mab. Using this approach, the spiked water samples with Cr(III) were detected. The linear range of the detection was 0.7–12.4 ng mL⁻¹. The limit of the detection (LOD) was 0.51 ng mL⁻¹. The spiked results were also confirmed by ICP-MS, which showed a good correlation (R² = 0.997) between the two methods. The results indicated that the developed assay was reliable and suitable for the detection of Cr(III) in water samples.