MICROBIOSENSOR FOR THE CONTINUOUS MONITORING OF CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES IN FLUIDS

摘要

A microbiosensor for the continuous monitoring of chemical substances in fluids. For the last two decades much work has been done in developing biosensors with specific applications (industrial, biomedical and environmental among others) that can now compete with the classical analytical technologies but these apparatus, that are based on the retention of microorganisms in membranes, have intrinsic limitations. The two principal innovations brought forward in respect of the present technology are; The continuous availability of microorganisms when using a chemostat which allows the monitoring of samples with elevated toxicity, discarding the microorganisms used after every reading, eliminating the membrane which physically separates the medium to be analyzed and the transducer, thus allowing the amplification of the linear range of the signal and drastically reducing the time needed to reach a steady signal. It is presented a microbiosensor system to monitor on-line chemical substances in fluids. An example of the application is the using of the system to determine the on-line biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) in water. <IMAGE>