Microanalytical system for water control

A concept for the development of a microanalytical system is presented which combines different transducer principles aiming at five model parameters of water control. Enzyme layers and ion-selective coatings, ISFETs, amperometric electrodes, and optical cells, micropumps and micro channel systems, sample pretreatment and control electronics have been integrated in such a way that a small and light-weight analysis system for quasi-continuous monitoring can be achieved, which consumes only small amounts of carrier and calibration solutions and has a low power consumption. In this contribution concepts and results of the German research project "Vorprojekt Integriertes Mikroanalysen System - VIMAS -" will be demonstrated. The proposed microanalytical system may find a lot of novel applications in environmental control ranging from continuous measurements of the water quality in rivers or ground water, the control of waste water systems to mobile instruments for on-site analysis. Nitrate, pH-value, phenolic compounds, oxygen and humic substances were chosen from the long list of substances with environmental relevance to demonstrate the integration of a variety of different sensor principles in a miniaturised flow injection analysis system.