SBIR Phase I: A Smartphone-Based Handheld Sensor for Accurate and Quantitative Detection of Toxic Ion Contaminants in Environmental Water

该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是一种便携式、低成本的即插即用移动的互联网集成传感器产品，以满足水质监测市场的需求，这是一个复合年增长率为4- 6%的全球市场。水测试设备市场分为低端，低成本的现场测试设备（如硝酸盐试纸），提供有关分析物的定性信息，以及实验室中使用的高端测试设备（如质谱仪），提供准确的定量信息。如果成功，这种传感器技术将通过提供低成本、灵敏、准确的工具来定量测量分析物（如有毒离子），从而弥合差距。因此，所提出的传感器技术的成功演示将促进个性化移动水质监测设备的更广泛的市场接受和渗透。该项目的另一个方面是使？公民科学家参与环境数据收集和传播可持续性教育。该小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目旨在开发一种基于智能手机的电子传感器技术，用于实时水质监测。目前，光谱法、毛细管电泳法、化学还原法和气相色谱联用质谱法是水质分析中最广泛使用的一些技术;然而，这些仪器体积庞大且昂贵;这些方法耗时，并且涉及费力的样品处理步骤，需要训练有素的人员在实验室环境中进行;为了满足市场对便携式、低成本和易于使用的水分析技术的需求，该项目将研究一种智能手机集成电读出传感器平台，该平台将能够通过以下方式解决上述所有问题：1）开发由电化学传感器芯片、驱动电路和用于独立操作的可再充电电池电源组成的低成本便携式传感器封装; 2）应用聚合物固定化离子感测涂层以增加在非实验室环境中离子检测期间的选择性; 3）使用校正曲线算法自动检测和量化有毒离子，以及4）使用智能手机内置的GPS和移动的宽带功能，将感测结果与地理空间信息联合收割机结合，并上传到云端进行进一步分析。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is a portable, low-cost plug and play mobile internet integrated sensor product catering to the needs of water quality monitoring market, a global market with a compounded annual growth rate of 4-6%. The water testing equipment market is divided into low-end, low-cost on-field test equipment (such as nitrate strip) that gives qualitative information about the analytes, and high-end testing devices used in labs (such as mass spectrometer) providing accurate quantitative information. If successful, this sensor technology will bridge the gap by providing low-cost, sensitive, accurate tools for quantitative measurement of analytes such as toxic ions. Consequently, successful demonstrations of the proposed sensor technology will facilitate wider market acceptance and penetration of personalized mobile-enabled water quality monitoring devices. Another aspect of the project is to enable ?citizen scientist? to partake in environmental data collection and spread sustainability education. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project proposes to develop a smartphone-based electrical sensor technology for real-time water quality monitoring. Currently, spectrometry, capillary electrophoresis, chemical reduction methods, and gas chromatography coupled mass spectroscopy are some of the most widely used techniques for water quality analysis; however, these instruments are bulky and costly; the methods are time consuming, and involve laborious sample processing steps requiring well-trained personnel in a laboratory setting; In order to meet the market need for a portable, low-cost, and easy-to-use water analysis technology, the project will investigate a smartphone integrated electrical readout sensor platform which will be able to address all of the above issues by: 1) the development of a low-cost, portable sensor package consisting of an electrochemical sensor chip, a driver circuit, and rechargeable battery power for standalone operation; 2) the application of polymer immobilized ion sensing coatings to increase the selectivity during ion detection in a non-laboratory setting; 3) the use of algorithm against calibration curve to automatically detect and quantify toxic ion, and 4) the use of smartphone in-built GPS and mobile broadband function to combine the sensing results with geospatial information and uploaded to the Cloud for further analysis.