Microelectrode Studies of Aqueous Marine Environments

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This Research Planning Grant is supported by the Analytical and Surface Chemistry Program. Professor Zoski is spending a sabbatical initiating a collaboration with Professor Dana R. Kester of the Graduate School of Oceanography at the Narragansett Bay Campus of the University of Rhode Island. During this time she is learning the special requirements of doing analytical chemistry in a marine environment together with her students. This project will focus on fabricating microelectrodes and microsensors and characterizing their function under real marine environmental conditions. These electrodes will be compared with commercially available sensors for analytes such as oxygen that employ membranes to protect against fouling. The behavior of bare metal microelectrodes in marine samples will be characterized using a sequence of applied potential pulses designed to clean and activate the metal surface and then analyze for specific analytes. The course of this applied work will be guided by fundamental theoretical work, the PI's area of expertise, throughout this project. This work focusses on the development of microelectrodes and microsensors that can be used in the complex matrices found in marine aquatic samples. Theoretical and experimental work will be used together to characterize the analytical responses of these electroanalytical probes so that robust, real-time systems can be developed and used for marine chemical analysis. Professor Zoski and her students at the University of Rhode Island will begin a collaboration with Professor Kester at the university's Graduate School of Oceanography that will result in more reliable analytical information about the chemistry of marine environments.