World’s first deep sea lab on chip

New marine sensor technologies devised by scientists in the United Kingdom have been tested on a research cruise in the Canary Islands and are now ready to be developed further for commercialisation.

After nine months of the four-year, two million pounds project, researchers have developed the first of a new generation of miniaturised sensors to measure marine environments and have tested them at depths of 1,600 metres.

"These sensors were dropped into the water strapped to a device which measures the temperature and salinity of the oceans as a function of depth, and the sensors measured the nitrate and nitrite concentrations which are important characteristics of ocean chemistry," said Professor Hywel Morgan, from Southampton University's School of Electronics & Computer Science.

"Phosphate, iron and manganese can also be measured with this technology," added Prof Morgan who was aided by Dr Matt Mowlem at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, southern England.

Now that the researchers have established that the sensors are capable of measuring harsh environments, they will develop them further so that they can be deployed for months at a time.

"This first generation of sensor systems as they stand are about the size of a large drinks bottle," said Professor Morgan. "We aim to make them much smaller so that they are capable of operating remotely without bulky, expensive and power-hungry support systems."

The project is funded by the UK's Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council and the Natural Environment Research Council and has two aims: to develop lab on a chip chemical and biochemical analysers to detect nutrients and pollutants at the ultra-low concentrations found in the ocean; and to develop small chips to identify individual phytoplankton in the oceans.

The improvement of these biogeochemical sensors over the next three years will provide a new-technology platform for marine scientists and have applications in many allied activities such as those undertaken by the water industry, in environmental impact assessments and in monitoring ship ballast water.

"We believe that the development of micro-sensing systems that will be used across the broad front in marine sensing will be a world first," added Dr Mowlem.

Recent progress, such as this, as well as the miniaturisation of electronics and wireless communication technology are leading to the emergence of environmental sensor networks (ESNs) that will greatly enhance monitoring of the natural environment and, in some cases, open the way for fresh techniques for taking measurements.