Fast and stable optical pH sensor materials for oceanographic applications

Christoph Staudinger, Martin Strobl, Johanna Breininger, Ingo Klimant, Sergey M. Borisov*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The study reports preparation and detailed comparison of four new pH sensor materials for seawater measurements. The composition of the sensors is optimized in several iterations to ensure optimal dynamic range, fast response time at low temperatures, low cross-sensitivities to temperature (dpKa/dT ∼ -0.013 pH units/K) and negligible cross sensitivity to ionic strength above salinity 15 PSU. The first generation (material “pH-1″) utilizes a pH indicator which is physically entrapped into a polyurethane hydrogel. This material shows satisfactory performance only at comparably high temperatures with response times being extremely long at low temperatures (t95 > 2 h at 5 °C). The three other materials utilize cross-linked hydrophilic polymers based on poly(acryloylmorpholine) with indicator dye covalently coupled to the polymer. They feature fast response times at low temperatures (t90 < 1 min at 5 °C). Moreover, the last two generations (“pH-3″ and “pH-4″) showed no drift over 54 days at 10 °C and only a drift of 0.003 pH units/day at 25 °C. Although the stability and the sensing properties of these materials are rather similar, the synthetic effort varies considerably. The material of the fourth generation “pH-4″ explores a novel approach of covalent coupling via B–O linkage and is characterized by low synthetic effort and the pKa value optimal for seawater measurements (8.05 at 20 °C). Importantly, all new sensor materials are spectrally compatible to a recently presented seawater optode system for combined pH, pO2 and pCO2 measurements which facilitates their application in marine environment.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)204-217
Number of pages14
JournalSensors and Actuators B: Chemical
Volume282
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2019

Keywords

  • aza-BODIPY
  • Fluorescence
  • Hydrogel
  • Marine
  • Optode
  • Seawater

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Instrumentation
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Surfaces, Coatings and Films
  • Metals and Alloys
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering
  • Materials Chemistry

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