Electrochemical instrumentation for remote, in-situ determination of trace metals in natural waters

Project Information

Grant agreement ID: MAS20008

Project closed

Start date 1 June 1992

End date 31 May 1995

Funded under

• Specific research and technological development programme (EEC) in the field of marine science and technology, 1990-1994

Total cost No data

EU contribution No data

Coordinated by

University of Southampton
United Kingdom

Objective

This project will manufacture novel microelectrodes and
appropriate instrumentation for the direct electrochemical
determination of trace metals in seawater. The trace metal
sensor is based on interdigitated gold microelectrodes with
'comb' geometries of 3 micron diameter by 2 mm length.
Microelectrodes offer potential advantages for direct
measurements of trace metals in water that are unparalleled by any other potentiometric or voltammetric method. Arrays of
microelectrodes offer: direct measurement, increased accuracy, precision, selectivity, shorter response time, lifetime,
robustness, higher immunity to noise, and greater signal-to-noise ratios. It should be noted that this development will advance our understanding in this very important area of
marine technology. It will also facilitate the monitoring of coastal/seawater pollution and the investigation of
biogeochemical cycles and fluxes in the water column and at
the land/ocean/sediment interfaces.

This collaborative project will involve the manufacturing of the microelectrodes and associated circuitry, preliminary
laboratory work to assess their performance (linearity,
detection limits, stability, range, reproducibility, etc.) and effects of interferences (salinity, temperature, pressure,
flow, etc.) on the sensor. Appropriate signal processing
software and a theoretical treatment describing the electrode responses will be developed. Two sea trials are planned in the English Channel in 1993. Laboratory calibration and
inter-calibration procedures are planned to take place
throughout the whole project period, as well as extensive
testing and evaluation. Ultimately, an automated instrument
will be developed for both field and remote use.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.

• natural sciences › computer and information sciences › software
• engineering and technology › electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering › electronic engineering › signal processing
• engineering and technology › electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering › electronic engineering › sensors
• natural sciences › earth and related environmental sciences › environmental sciences › pollution
• natural sciences › mathematics › pure mathematics › geometry

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Programme(s)

• FP3-MAST 2 - Specific research and technological development programme (EEC) in the field of marine science and technology, 1990-1994

Topic(s)

• 0301 - Instrumentation for science

Call for proposal

Data not available

Funding Scheme

CSC - Cost-sharing contracts

Coordinator

University of Southampton

• EU contribution: No data
• Address: European Way ; SO14 3ZH Southampton ; United Kingdom
• Total cost: No data

Participants (1)

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)

France

• EU contribution: No data
• Address: 1 rue Maurice Arnoux ; 92120 Montrouge
• Total cost: No data