A compact, in-situ, spectrophotometric sensor for aqueous environments: design and applications

Author

Kaltenbacher, Eric ; Steimle, Eric T. ; Byrne, Raymond H.

Author_Institution

Univ. of South Florida, St. Petersburg, FL, USA

fYear

2000

fDate

2000

Firstpage

41

Lastpage

45

Abstract

A compact, portable and sensitive instrument has been designed and built for in-situ spectrophotometric analyses on aqueous solutions. This sensor, known as the spectral elemental analysis system (SEAS), has been successfully used for nutrient and pH measurements on both autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and on moored platforms. The key element of SEAS is a liquid-core waveguide made of Teflon AF-2400 that permits long optical path lengths (several meters) in a very small volume (~40 cm³). Using SEAS, sub-nanomolar detection limits have been achieved for a wide variety of analyses. A unique feature of SEAS is the minimal reconfiguration required to perform fluorimetric analyses. Characteristics of the SEAS instrument are described, including laboratory and field measurements

Keywords

chemical sensors; oceanographic equipment; pH measurement; spectral analysis; spectrophotometers; aqueous solutions; fluorimetric analysis; liquid-core waveguide; nutrients; pH measurements; spectral elemental analysis system; spectrophotometric sensor; subnanomolar detection; Instruments; Laboratories; Liquid waveguides; Optical sensors; Optical waveguides; Performance analysis; Sea measurements; Sensor systems; Spectral analysis; Underwater vehicles;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Underwater Technology, 2000. UT 00. Proceedings of the 2000 International Symposium on

Conference_Location

Tokyo

Print_ISBN

0-7803-6378-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/UT.2000.852513

Filename

852513