Introduction

An innovative material for production of chemical sensors for chloride, bromide, iodide and sulfide is developed to be easily deployed on glass, plastic and textile base. The associations between substrate and anion to be analyzed enables realization of various types of new sensors with possible applications ranging  from environmental monitoring to biomedical field.

Technical features

An example of the invention’s application is a portable sensor for quantification of salinity in soils and waters of rivers, canals and the sea. Hypersalinity is an important abiotic stress affecting more than 6% of the world’s cultivated land, limiting its productivity. The invention aims to provide an affordable and portable device to be easily used even by non-trained staff. The two-terminal device simplifies architecture both  of  the sensor and its reading electronics. Irrelevant for a benchtop device, it turns out to be a key issue when manufacturing a portable sensor, a miniaturized sensor, or a sensor embedded into a chip. It allows for one connection less, while having fewer limitations caused by the electrolyte between the two terminals

Possible Applications

• Chloride concentration estimation in surface water samples;
• Agriculture and environmental monitoring field.

Advantages

• Better performance comparing to conventional electrochemical devices;
• Simplicity of use, biocompatibility and small dimensions of the device;
• Possibility to connect the device to a smartphone;
• Sustainability and affordability of the manufacturing process.