A Portable System for the Monitoring of Dissolved Oxygen in Aquatic Environment

Here is reported about the development of a sensing apparatus for dissolved oxygen (DO) in water. The purpose is achieved by means of a home-made electrochemical sensor, with working probe functionalized with Ag-iron oxide nanoparticles, and a readout system based on custom electronics for sensor interfacing and ATMEL microcontroller. Oxygen concentration was varied by bubbling an argon and oxygen mixture at different partial pressure (PO2/P0) into a 1 M phosphate buffer solution (pH = 7.4). A graphical user interface (GUI), developed in Python environment, allows the real-time visualization and recording of data coming from the sensor. The system is biased by USB connection and, employed with a notebook, it can be considered as a portable stand-alone one for outdoor applications.