This technology describes an E. coli biocapacitor chip device and a method for determining cellular stress induced by toxic chemicals at chemical-biocapacitor interface. This interface contains living bacterial cells that interact with toxic chemicals and change their electrical properties depending upon the toxic nature of the chemical. The biocapacitor then captures this signal that enables distinguishing toxic from non-toxic chemicals to the living cells. There are a variety of known methods to detect and measure the toxicity.