In this work, a new optical screening method for acrylamide was developed. Bacterial Bacillus sp. strain ZK 34 was used to hydrolyse acrylamide to the corresponding acid and ammonia. Nessler's reagent was used to detect the produced ammonia and the yellow complex formed was treated as signal. Bacterial pellet was immobilised in the alginate membrane. The optimum composition of alginate used is 2%. The mass ratio of alginate:bacterial of 1:0.5 gave the optimum respond. Optimum concentration for NaOH and Nessler's reagent were 0.075 M and 2.5 mM, respectively. The yellow complex of mercury (II) amido-iodine formed was directly proportional to the concentrations of acrylamide up to 50.00 ppm with the limit of detection of 1.30 ppm. This sensor shows a good reproducibility which the relatives standard deviation (RSD) values from 3.17-6.15%. Therefore, the detection of acrylamide based on the amidase hydrolysis is suitable for screening this carcinogen compound.

This paper reported the results for quantitative determination of acrylamide via hydrolysis process using ultra violet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometric method. This quantitative determination started with hydrolysing acrylamide in a strong basic condition to yield ammonia and acid salt. The optimum conditions of hydrolysis (concentration of the base used and time for hydrolysis) were also determined. From this study, the optimum conditions to hydrolyse acrylamide were achieved using 6.0 M of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) for 10 minutes. The hydrolysis process was characterised by monitoring the ammonia produced using Nessler’s reagent through the formation of yellow colouration in the presence of ammonia. After the optimisation of hydrolysis process, the characterisation of all parameters including concentration of Nessler’s reagent used, reproducibility, dynamic range, and interference ions were studied. Linear dynamic ranges from 0-10 ppm acrylamide with limit of detection (LOD) of 0.074 ppm were obtained when 3.0 mM Nessler’s reagent was used. The relative standard deviations (RSD) for reproducibility were 2.8-3.3%. No significant interference from cations such as Na + , K + , Ca 2+ during quantitative analysis of acrylamide, but ions such as Fe 3+ and NH 3 affected the analysis.